


Prototype Romance

by berrykeith



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Friends With Benefits, How Do I Tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-06-06 02:17:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15184580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/berrykeith/pseuds/berrykeith
Summary: Lotor and Allura are sworn, science enemies who have come to the horrific realization that the only way they can work with each other is if they occasionally "let loose". By occasionally, of course, they mean "always". And by "let loose" of course, they mean... sex.





	1. A Collaboration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha hi so fair warning i have a fuckton of work in my life so this might not update all that quickly. also shit. my boyfriend tells me all the programming science here are wrong. so um. oh well. good thing it's fiction. anyway. have fun I guess.

It all starts the day Allura wins the science fair.

"Knock knock," Lotor comes up to her booth with a smile more artificial than the stainless steel his laser robot project was made of. After decades of competing for #1 at quiz bowls and literally everything else, Allura's become accustomed to these visits. Lotor likes to project his self-pity onto others, and Allura seems to be his favorite victim.

"Who's there?" Allura plays along, smirking because whatever it was that Lotor had up his sleeve this time, it won't affect her in the tiniest. Because the fact stands that _she_ won the science fair, and this tall arrogant man in front of her came in second place. Allura was _very_ confident in herself today.

"Your conscience," he says in a low, intimidating voice.

"I beg your pardon?"

He comes closer, cornering her into the table where her project sat with a smiley face and whiskers drawn on it. "I don't know how you fooled them, or how much your father _paid_ them, but I see through your shit, Allura, you know?"

She shoves him. "What kind of nonsense are you talking about this time, Lotor?"

Lotor scoffs and shakes his head. "Show me your program."

"Not until you tell me why I should."

"You _know_ why I'm asking--"

"I most certainly do not!"

He gives me an incredulous expression, then reaches up to turn Allura's Automated Segregator on. It whirrs into obedience. The small robot made of pressed plastic stands above the pile of banana peels and plastic bottles then starts arranging them in piles, all with a drawn smiley on his face.

"There. See?"

Allura scrunches up her nose. "What?"

Lotor opens his mouth to argue but the realization hits him and he's only able to manage an "Oh my goodness. You hadn't even noticed yourself."

"Noticed _what?_ " Allura grabs him by the wrist. "Look, if you're trying to play me right now, Lotor, that's just childish and stupid. We're nineteen freaking years old. _I_ won the science fair. _I_ won the grant. You. Lost. Act your age."

Lotor breaks free from her grasps with a maniac laugh. "More like _you_ act your IQ, _princess_ Allura - as they so fondly call you around here. You better enjoy your five seconds of fame, princess, and smell that cheque while you can, cause - not that I need it but - it's gonna be mine soon. As the _real_ winner of this science fair."

Allura isn't sure if he's bluffing. She glares at him but he doesn't give anything away. She breaks. "Bullshit. What is it?"

"Show me. Your program."

Allura gets behind the table and takes her laptop. She looks for any signs that Lotor's bluffing again but to no avail. Lotor quickly grabs the laptop away and Allura has to tip toe to see where he's scrolling in her code. After a few couple minutes of analyzing the code, Lotor finally exclaims, "Aha! Look at this!"

"I'm trying," Allura says, unamused, then Lotor rolls his eyes and puts the laptop back on the table for both of them to see.

He points at a string of letters and numbers. "See this?"

"It's only a bug. I'm a genius, but I'm not perfect. We had six months to make this prototype!" Allura explains.

" _No_ , God, no, Allura. It's not just an ordinary bug. You can debug it, but it'll just reconfigure at a different spot, see?" He clicks a few buttons and true enough, the same error reappears on screen. He toggles a button to activate the robot, and it operates just the same. "That's why your robot is so glitchy. Your whole algorithm's faulty!"

"Woah, woah, no," Allura says and takes the laptop away from his, cradling it like a child. "That is just disrespectful."

Lotor crosses his arms. "But it's the truth."

"Bull," Allura says, mirroring Lotor's stance. "Literal bull. You're just jealous. I know it. You made a metal laser-shooting robot, whereas I actually made something _useful_ for mankind. I get it, Lotor. You're a pressured science kid. You're competitive."

Lotor merely glares at her again. "First of all, my parasite-detecting robot - with proper research and funding - could help eradicate intestinal parasites with the ease of cutting one's nails with a nailcutter. Second of all, _Allura,_ " he takes a step closer and bends down just to shoot her a glare eye-to-eye. "Check it again. Go on, if you really don't trust me. Better make it quick before your precious plastic robot starts falling apart."

Allura steps up closer to him too, unafraid of his towering stance. "As a matter of fact, I will. And then I'll let you know how wrong you are. And then you can go to a therapist."

"And if I'm right?"

"Unlikely," Allura chuckles. "But heck, I'd actually go on a date with you. Maybe then you can finally touch an actual human woman, instead of, you know, your daddy's blow-up doll"

She laughs, but when Lotor walks away, she debugs the code twelve times, and five hours later, she basks in the horror that for once in his godforsaken existence, Lotor might actually be right.

 

* * *

 

At Chemistry the next day, Lotor pairs with Allura, and while the whole classrom falls into a focused silence as he makes his way to her table with his chemistry set and his long braid dangling about, Lotor doesn't seem to notice them, focused on one thing himself - one that he's stayed up all night working on.

"Five weeks," he tells her before putting his goggles on.

"Five weeks to what?" she asks, but of course she knew by now.

"Five weeks til your precious recycle-bot glitches for good."

"I can fix the algorithm."

Lotor snorts and every sane person turns around with their eyes blown out. Lotor, again, does not mind one bit.

"I _can_  fix it," Allura repeats while accurately pouring chemicals from one container to another.

"How quickly?" Lotor asks, absentmindedly handing her the lab equipment she needed. "Cause I, for one, know that the proposal's due...hmm... Friday?" he offers her a beaker of flammable liquid with his right hand, and another beaker of saltwater in the other. "And Friday is... hmmm... tomorrow?"

She shoots him a glare and grabs one of the beakers. "I'll figure it out."

"I've already figured it out."

Allura's eyes turn wide. "Wha--"

"Allura! That's the wrong liqui--!"

 

* * *

 

"What do you _mean_ you've already figured it out?!"

"Allura, please, your hand is bleeding into my lab coat, it's disgusting," Lotor deadpans as he accompanies Allura to the university infirmary.

"Hey, answer me, or I'll splash you!" Allura flicks her bloodied hand up at him.

Lotor presses onto the hallway. "Ew! Are you trying to give me HIV?!"

Allura grins. "I have the power to."

Lotor smiles and stands up straight again. "I have a bigger IQ than literal Einstein. I know HIV isn't transmitted like that, princess."

Allura flicks her hand at him again and this time blood gets to his cheek.

"Hey! Stop it!"

"I'm still splashing you, HIV or not!" Allura shouts, not caring about the freshmen who pass along the halls confused and scared at the encounter.

"That's downright childish, Allura."

Allura pins him to the wall again, poking a bloody finger into his chest. "What do you mean you've already figured out my algorithm?"

Lotor sighs. He really does hate blood. It makes the hairs at the back of his neck rise. "Just. I'll tell you when we get to the infirmary, okay?"

Allura pouts, but walks ahead.

 

* * *

 

"It's the same," Lotor explains. "My robot and your robot have the same algorithm, except _I_ did mine right." He mumbles, "And yet I didn't win. Truly, the academe can do with a little bit of improvement."

"So, are you saying you'll... give me your algorithm?"

Lotor laughs manically. "Wh-what? Are you stupid? Of course not!"

Allura crosses her arms. "Then why did you even bring it up?!"

"Just to spite you, of course!" Lotor laughs. "Oh man, what, did you expect, like, a partnership of some sort? What, I give you my algorithm and we make some massive prototype of an eco-friendly recycling robot with a _laser_ in it's face?"

He doesn't stop laughing, and so doesn't notice the thought blooming in Allura's face. She lights up like a Christmas tree and jumps off of her seat. "That's it!"

Lotor quiets. "Huh?"

Allura goes to where he's sitting and shoves her head at a dangerously close spot near his own. "We collaborate, Lotor!"

"What?! No!"

"Why not?! That idea was _brilliant!_ "

Lotor chokes. "A recycling robot with a laser eye?" He stands up. "Nurse? Nurse, can you check her head, please? She's scaring me."

"Not a laser eye, silly. A laser-powered compressor," Allura begins to pace. "It's not just going to segregate the trash anymore, it's also gonna press the plastic it finds! It's a huge step for zero waste!"

Lotor crosses his arms and frowns. "You are telling me to let go of my life-saving, intestinal-parasites-destroying _genius_ robot for your zero waste agenda?" He starts to walk away, but Allura grabs him.

"No, no, hold on. I actually have a compelling incentive."

Lotor raises an eyebrow at that. "It's not up for negotiation but carry on, just, hypothetically."

Allura smiles. In the decades they spent together fighting, Lotor's never beat her at a debate before. Never ever. Guy's just too machiavellian to earn any ethical points. "Hypothetically, you get a by-line in one of the best undergraduate theses to ever be made in this university--"

"I'll get that eitherway, thank you very much--"

"Hypothetically, the project will be funded by the grant money I got from the fair--"

He lets out an offended gasp. "I am the richest man in this entire building, Allura--"

"Hypothetically, we have sure slots for Oriande."

Well, that sure got his attention. Allura smirks.

"O-Oriande? How did you--"

Allura flips her hair. "I guess you can say I've been scouted, and they've entrusted me to recommend one more viable candidate for the space program. Given, of course, that this _man_ has an acceptable track record, high aptitude, high GPA, _and_ has worked with me. They say they can't afford bickering in the space program. It's much too expensive."

"Well then, it's a disaster. We can never live with each other."

"We can never live with each other in Oriande..."

Allura sees a twinkle in Lotor's eyes - a longing. Ever since he could remember, Lotor's longed to go to Oriande - the second Mars, the Mars that could actually house human life, the future's new home. He's been gathering the guts to apply for years now, but the uncertainty of getting in always holds him back. He just couldn't handle the rejection if it ever came... he would be absolutely devastated.

Lotor knew that the only way to get to Oriande was a sure way to get to Oriande, lest he completely goes insane and his life, ruined for good.

If that meant working with Allura - the woman who's beat him in more instances than he liked, his sworn enemy, the woman who listens to mainstream pop songs - then so be it.

Victory or death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay thanks for reading! to bug me about the next chapter, i'm on twitter as @bonglotor :-) bye bongtors


	2. A Catastrophe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> God, don't you just hate it when you have sex with your own sworn enemy?! Like shit?? That's not supposed to happen?? Y'know???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im CRAZY and wrote this WHOLE CHAPTER and couldnt KEEP IT IN MY PANTS for a few more days so here's BACK TO BACK CHAPTERS bitches y'all better enjoy it cuz the next update's gonna be in 10 years probably

So, working with Allura didn't turn out to be all that bad, except of course, for the fact that they can never get along, start screaming at each other the moment they get the chance, Allura listens to _crap_ pop music, and Lotor listens to literal _noise_ trying to pass off as 'punk music', and the fact that how, overall, it's never really gonna work.

So, working with Allura is a disaster.

"If you want that _gay shit_ color in the UI, just kill me," Lotor deadpans and shoves a gel pen to Allura's face. "Just stab me with this pen." He stretches his hand out in front of her, "End me right now."

Allura just rolls her eyes from where she sat on Lotor's study table. After the proposal got approved, they both put in the extra effort to work overtime at each other's homes for the project to finish quicker, and this silly partnership along with it. "Would you stop being so overdramatic? It's just a color."

"It's the _user interface_!" Lotor exclaims, hands flailing about. "I know mommy and daddy raised you not to judge a book by it's cover, Allura, but honey, everyone else was raised the other way around!"

Lotor grabs the laptop and points to the screen. "People don't like this? They go. They don't care how brilliant the code is. They don't care what benefits it has." He pokes the screen. "Nobody cares about the inside anymore. The world is _this way_ , Allura. You have to be pretty to be successful."

Allura frowns and takes the laptop from him. "That's mean, and wrong."

"It's the truth," Lotor says, arms crossed.

Allura wants to let it go. Lotor is mean. What's new? It's a fact of life. Usually, she doesn't mind cynics like Lotor. She doesn't confront them. Like any self-respecting person, she pulls herself away from the situation before the negativity gets to her. But in this particular case, she just doesn't seem to have that luxury. Lotor is just so - _too_ negative. For over _two weeks_ now, she's been stuck listening to him yap about the smallest things and making a big deal out of them, and ranting about _“the youth",_ and whining about dogs and rainbows and literally everything good about the world. It's like he was _made_ to hate _everything_. He's a void of despair!

She slams the laptop shut and finally lets out an exasperated sigh. "Why are you such a big cynic, anyway?"

That doesn't seem to be a question that Lotor was expecting. "Why not?" He tries to be witty, but Allura's standing up from the table and coming his way.

"No, what is it, really?" She squints her eyes as she approaches. "What's so wrong about the world that you hate it so much?"

Lotor scoffs. Allura's looking up at him with strong eyes, and he returns the favor. "What's _wrong_ about the world? Turn on the fucking television. Wars. Hunger. Poverty. The _whole package_ of this planet is wrong!"

"And how is that attitude gonna help fix that?!" She says with a poke at his chest.

Lotor huffs. "Maybe it won't, but that's not the attitude that the world needs from me anyway."

"Uh-huh, and what could that be?"

Lotor grabs her by the shoulders. "I'm brilliant!"

Allura sighs in defeat and goes back to the table.

"I'm gonna fix the world, Allura, but I don't have to love it. Because it's shit. That's why I'm fixing it!"

Allura shakes her head at that. "You know why girls don't like you?"

Lotor takes a step back. "Huh?"

"It's not because you're a nerd, and not because they can't keep up with your _big_ smart head. It's because..." she sighs again like one would at a dog that needed training. "It's cause you're such a downer, Lotor."

Lotor doesn't reply to that. He coughs and then puts his hair into a ponytail. "Whatever. It's not like I have the time for dating anyway."

He’s startled when Allura puts her hand on his shoulder. "Would it kill you to have a little fun?"

"I have fun," Lotor says matter-of-factly.

Allura snorts. "What, reading encyclopedias?" She gestures to his room full of books and little else. "Look at this place. It doesn't look like a teenager's room. It's like... a library with a bed."

Its spacious and minimalist, painted black and grey, sharp edges here and there from cabinets and tables and doors. It looks more like an office than a bedroom.

Lotor takes a look at his own room too. What's so wrong with it? The dark walls control the light so it doesn't bounce around. The black curtains perfectly keep the burning sunlight from coming in. It's monochrome and classy and... alright. He doesn't see Allura's point.

"Why don't we work in my room next?"

He frowns. "I don't like your room"

"Why not?!"

"It's so bright!"

Allura just laughs, giving up at this point. "There's really no helping you, Lotor," she mumbles as she gets back to work.

He ignores her remark and just sits across her, pretending to be engrossed in the hardware, but all that's going on is his head is the fact that he's never really been to a single party in his life.

 

* * *

 

Two days later, Lotor says the most incredulous thing.

"Do you want to go to a party?"

He finds himself grinning at the sight of Allura's jaw dropping in front of him. "Wh-what?" she replies, scandalized for some reason.

Lotor shrugs. "Nyma invited me. She said I should bring other people."

Allura tries to get up from her bed to inspect Lotor's face better from where he sat on her desk but the wirings she's trying to fix up on her lap wouldn't let her. Was he joking? Is this a prank? Is she in a TV show?

"Wh-why-what's... what's going on?" She looks around her room in search of hidden cameras. "Am I getting punked?"

Lotor's got a blush on his face as he runs a hand through his hair. "Look, it's alright if you don't wanna go. I just thought I'd ask--"

"No, I want to!" she says all too quickly. "I mean, that'd be. That'd be alright, I guess. We can definitely use a break. _Sheesh_."

" _Sheesh_?" Lotor raises an eyebrow at that, but lets it go. "Well anyway, it's not until nine so, you can like," he moves his hands around in front of his face awkwardly. "Make up... face... do pretty... or whatever you girls do before parties. I'll just," he raises the laptop he's in front of. "I'll be coding in silence in this corner. Don't mind me." And then he goes right back to work without a word.

Allura's mouth hangs open and doesn't really close right back as she carefully removes herself from the jumble of wirings on her bed and walks to her bathroom. She splashes water on her face just to be sure it wasn't a dream.

She got so shellshocked of Lotor's question that she never really considered the situation in full till then: she was going to _a party_ with her _sworn enemy_ whom she _doesn't_ get along with and whom half the time wants to _kill._

So things are gonna get awkward tonight.

 

* * *

 

Allura steps out of the bathroom in a white crop top, skinny jeans, a leather jacket, and a handful of sparkly accessories everywhere. Lotor blames the fact that her room is painted pastel pink - hence, light bounces around freely - so it appears as if she's glowing.

It was that poor interior design decision that made her look stunning that night. Yes. Such is, and the only thing, to blame.

 

* * *

 

Though not his favorites due to the unpragmatic nature of such texts, Lotor's read a few YA novels. Nine times out of ten, there's always a party scene and so, he _knows_ and is _one hundred percent_ prepared for the worst that is to come.

He had a mental checklist of cool things to do - chug a beer, high five people, greet people with millennial slang - he had it all in the bag. Party games or whatever, he can do that shit. He can handle his alcohol. He can dance once he's got slightly tipsy and once he's sure that everyone else in the dance floor is too out of it to remember. He can "party". And he's ready to shove that up Allura's ass in the morning.

The first thing that went wrong that evening was the surprising fact that college students can afford alcohol other than beer. Specifically, 80-proof alcohol, alcohol that was basically rubbing alcohol at this point, the kind of alcohol that got Lotor drunk.

The second thing to go wrong was the party games which were directly to blame for Lotor's getting drunk. Apparently, when you lose in these party games, you're peer pressured to drink. Usually in the YA novels, they drink voluntarily because obviously they make bad decisions but, _oh no_ , apparently, it was a requirement. And while Lotor's got a 210 IQ, he knows near nothing about pop culture and keeps too many secrets for his own good that one hour into the party, he's wasted out of his mind.

The third thing to go wrong was caused by Allura's hero complex.

"You alright there?" She grins at him, stumbling a little as she tries to balance herself in front of the kitchen counter where they've come to get snacks.

Lotor just nods, leaning into the kitchen counter for some balance. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's tight, it's cool"

Allura laughs and it echoes in Lotor's eardrums as his tunnel vision tries to sync the woman to the sounds she's making.

"You're really a lightweight, you know that?" Allura smiles at him. It's... soft. She tucks her hair behind her ear. "Maybe you've had enough"

"Whaaaat?" Lotor extends it like how those skater dudes outside greeted him ("Duuuuuuudeee"). " _You've_ had enough"

"Look, I just wanna make sure you get home safe tonight"

"Awwwww, cute, if you weren’t my worst enemy," Lotor teases, and Allura only laughs.

She gives him a light shove, but both underestimate how drunk they've become and Allura outright stabs Lotor with her finger and in an attempt to avoid getting poked for a second time, Lotor slips down into the counter except he didn't expect to slip down in that velocity and changes his mind halfway, reaching up instead for something to grab on to - which was sadly the table cover... with the juice punch on it.

The juice punch container hits his knee and the rest of the punch slide right down his crotch and torso. He yelps.

"Oh my, oh my god, are you alright?" Allura scrambles to get him all sorts of dry fabrics and tissues she can find. She helps him up. "Come'on, let's- let's get you all cleaned up"

She lifts him up - an impressive feat because he was massive, and she was drunk.

Next thing he knows he’s in a bathtub - the cold metal prickling his back.

So, this bathroom… it's so... _badly_ _designed_. The space is barely enough to fit three people, and the light is a dull yellow and _dim_. Everyone knows that bathroom tiles should be brighter. This is the one place you want to be bright. But it _isn't_ for some reason. Lotor is _so_ scolding Nyma about this. Poor taste, honestly. A disgrace.

“Are you alright?” Allura beckons in a soft voice. The sound echoes in the space. She’s knelt beside the tub, her face rested on the ledge.

Lotor can't remember when his braid went undone, but Allura's absentmindedly running her hand through the top of his head, and he just knows that it feels relaxing. “Mm-hm,” he hums in the same manner a cat would purr.

“Um, Lotor?”

“Mm?”

“Your, uh, your crotch is all wet,” she giggles and the sound waves dance around Lotor’s head, tickling his face as they bounce into the tight space.

“Oh, shit,” Lotor remarks, but laughs anyway.

“Do you want me to, um, rinse it with water or something?”

“Um, sure?” He says absentmindedly. He hasn't been paying attention anymore. He's just bathing in the tickling sounds that bounce around the dark bathroom throughout his skin.

“Okay,” Allura complies, reaching up above Lotor's head to turn the knob.

Lotor _screams_ . “Ow! Ah-Allura, it's- it's c- _cold_!” He rips himself out of the tub but the intensity of the motion makes him dizzy and he falls right back.

“Oh my god, oh my god, _sorry_ , I'll, it's alright I'll fix it,” Allura, intoxicated out of her mind, climbs into the tub and reaches up towards the knob but Lotor’s panicked fidgeting below her causes her to slip. They hit their foreheads together.

They must really be intoxicated right now because instead of getting angry at each other as per usual, they just laugh.

 

* * *

 

The fifth thing to go wrong that evening were the brownies.

So, there was pot in them.

And Allura - _God bless her soul_ \- has a bit of a sweet tooth. So you can guess what happened next.

Brownies don’t hit like when you smoke the weed. It takes a while, and it’s different for every person depending on their weight and how much they’ve eaten and stuff like that. Now, for Allura, it took until they get to the kitchen. She’s gotten drunk before, sure. But it wasn’t like this. Precisely because she _wasn’t_ drunk after all, she was high. But she didn’t know that.

She tries her best to act normal in front of Lotor - God knows what he’ll do with whatever incriminating information he’ll see tonight. He’s already done such a good job hiding all his secrets even in truth or dare games.

She acts nice - a little _too nice_ perhaps. She takes him to the bathroom. When she sees he’s closed his eyes, she flops down onto the floor and stares at the dim yellow lightbulb ahead - seemingly moving about.

“Llura--” Lotor murmurs beside her. She rests her head on the tub, and turns sideways so that the entire side of her face is pressed onto the cold steel. The sensation spreads to her entire face - seemingly seeping through her skin. It’s numbing.

She reaches up to touch his hair without thinking, and the moment her fingers touch the white strands, the static seems to pull her back to do it again and again and again until her entire right palm’s flooded with his distinct electric signature.

 

* * *

 

Lotor is warm below her, and the water dripping from the shower, cold. Everything in Allura’s skin tickles.

Lotor watches as the water falls into her hair, dripping down her forehead, then down her nose, then her lips, and her chin… and down to his clothed chest. The cool temperature stings, but Lotor’s too lazy to make it stop.

Too lazy or… too something.

Too focused on the water dripping onto Allura’s body, her crop top clinging to her breasts.

Too wasted, unable to move even if he wanted; his whole body feels like a sack of weights.

Too… mesmerized. Or some variation of that sort. Allura’s looking at him and it makes him slightly self-conscious. She opens her mouth and Lotor thinks it’s because she wants to say something - probably tease him about this whole thing - but she just… shifts her head upward, closes her eyes and arches into the water dripping from the showerhead.

It’s those dark damn tiles. It’s the bad way the bathroom’s designed. It’s that poorly-chosen bathroom light that’s to blame for all of this. There is no other explanation - there can’t be - to why Lotor’s looking at the woman he’s spent his entire life despising, and feels an urge to touch her.

He _couldn’t_ be seeing Allura right now. If he’s still himself, he’s not seeing Allura at all. When he slings an arm around this woman, it’s _not_ Allura. It’s not Allura’s waist. Not Allura’s cold, wet skin. Not the Allura he knows, at least.

It’s just. Just a woman.

 

* * *

 

The water stings on her back, and the temperature’s too cold, but Allura loves the sensation. She is a lake freezing over in the winter. When the water hits, her back chills with the quickness of a slap, and in an instant, her whole body freezes over. The water makes its way through her thighs, soiling her jeans and it leaves a spiky feeling where her jeans are ripped and pressed onto the steel tub. Her knees wobble, but she pins them down, and arches further into the source of this blissful feeling.

It’s an unanticipated self-discovery. Allura can feel her whole body _existing_ \- the line in her scalp where her hair parts, every hair at the back of her neck, the space behind her ear, the dips of her clavicle, the nook of her breasts...  the sting of the cold water only overemphasizes them, and she loves it. She loves this euphoric reminder that she exists. That the world is around her. That--

“ _Ah_ \--!” She yelps when she feels Lotor’s arms around her. She falls into his wet chest. With Allura showered in cold water, Lotor _burns_. It’s a sweet and spicy sensation. Her brain short circuits. Lotor is some kind of warm. It’s not as strong as burning your tongue on hot coffee, and not as weak as soup temperature. Lotor is warm like a child wrapped in a comforter, or a dog snuggled up by the fire. He radiates through her chest.

“L-Lotor, what--” She moves her head to look up at him. It’s the first time she’s seeing him this up-close. As he’s always too tall for her to properly look at. Light reflects on the droplets of water on his face like glitter on his dark complexion. His ears look even more pointy and elf-like up close. Allura wants to giggle, but Lotor interrupts her by slotting two hands into the the sides of her torso and _lifting her_ into a sitting position in the tub. Both out of the showerhead’s direct flow, they look at each other.

“I--” Lotor tries to explain, but trails off as if he never thought of anything after that in the first place.

Allura watches as Lotor leans in, unfazed by the cool water that he had to transgress to get to her. When the splashes he makes smears into her cheeks, and the sensation dominoes throughout her whole face, making it tingle, she meets him in the middle, and they kiss for the first time in Nyma’s badly designed bathroom’s tub.

 

* * *

 

It’s sloppy, as one would expect from two massively intoxicated teenagers. It’s all teeth, and then it’s all tongue, and then it’s just touching lips. Every soft brush and every rough graze drive Allura to the edge, and leaves Lotor wanting more. She reaches behind him to turn the water off, and they shiver together as the cold air meets their wet forms.

Lotor takes his soaked white shirt off, and Allura actually finds the time to get surprised at how built he really his behind all that arrogance. He grabs at her breast and closes his hand around them, inhaling sharply as he did in the middle of the kiss. Allura undoes his pants, and he returns the favor happily. After the awkward jumble of legs that followed, they eventually find themselves face to face, on their knees in Nyma’s bathtub.

There is one second of sanity - of shame, and self-consciousness, and _logic_ \- and then the lust takes over, and they lunge to finish what they started.

 

* * *

 

Lotor gets it now - why the tiles were dark in that bathroom. As the sunlight comes in to bite his lifeless form, draped in that bathtub with Allura naked on top of him face first on his chest, he realizes now, why the dark tiles were needed.

The light of shame had to be contained.

God, _god_ god god god god god god god god god god. Lotor was a _raging atheist_ , but right now, god god god god god god was the only thing in his hungover brain.

“Ah-Allura…?” He pokes her, heart running a billion beats per minute single handedly caused by the anxiety that it caused him to wake his sworn enemy up after _literally_ having _sex_ with her. Oh god. God god god god god god. It was gonna be _some_ walk of shame for the both of them.

“Hm? Who’s there?” Allura mumbles into his bare chest, tickling the thin hairs that grew there.

“Lot-” he coughs. “It’s, uh, it’s, um… Allura, this is--”

“Argh yuu muh conscience?” Allura says, half-asleep.

Lotor’s mouth is open, and he’s pretty sure his heart is about to jump right out.

“I-uh- _yes_?” God god god god he actually hopes to get a heart attack right here. It’s not a very dignified death when it’s done naked and in the arms of your sworn enemy, but fuck, that really sounds like the best option right about now, not gonna lie.

“Mm?” Allura’s eyes flutter open but it’s a false alarm as she sinks back into Lotor’s chest. It was enough to probably give him a stroke, though. It had that energy. “Why do you sound like--” she giggles and the vibrations slip right down Lotor’s lungs. “AJ-- Aj LoCasio,” she’s in a fit of laughter now.

 _Who the fuck was AJ LoCascio?_ Oh my god. Lotor just wants this to end. Just. This whole thing. Not even erased, just to be cut short like how Y.A. novels leave off some important parts of the character’s life so the reader gets to imagine that emotion and situation for himself.

Allura chuckles again, and Lotor holds his breath. “ _Weird,_ you- you also sound like this _one asshole_ at school, you know? Lo-- _AH!!!”_

_“Ahh!”_

They scream at each other for probably a whole minute until a hungover Nyma knocks at the door to check, and they panickedly change back to their clothes while endlessly screaming mismatched excuses at the door.

When they walk out of there, Nyma’s not even in the house, but it’s still the biggest walk of shame any of them every did.

 

* * *

 

The second walk of shame was at the pharmacist’s when Allura _specifically said_ she’ll buy the morning after pills by _herself_ while Lotor waits in the car, but the hungover _idiot_ had to come in and be like “Oh, um, can you get me some aspirin, too?”

Fucking mother fucking asshole fucker _Lotor_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no shame. absolutely zero. hmu on twitter @bonglotor
> 
> PEACE OUT BONGTORS


	3. Crisis Management

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Unofficial Guide On What To Do When You Accidentally Sleep With Your Sworn Enemy:
> 
> 1\. Accidentally take them to dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyoooo it's me your filthy friend, I did warn you I was gonna update slowly but I'm still sorry it took long! Have fun I guess (I hope)

Lotor and Allura have a combined IQ of 433, and so they are definitely able to have a mature-enough conversation about the one-night-stand situation they mistakenly got themselves into.  
   
"So what are we, exactly?" Lotor doesn't even wait until Allura's settled the robot prototype down on his study table before dropping the question like a teenage virgin.  
  
"What? Nothing's changed. We just slept together." Allura explains without looking him in the eye. He's sat all the way across the room on his bed.  
  
"Okay," Lotor says with a nod. There's a short silence, then he speaks again. "But- but yeah, that's- we slept together."  
  
Allura takes a deep breath, and then turns to him. "Yeah, and then what? We're like... boyfriend-girlfriend now?"  
  
Lotor chokes. "What? No! That's incredulous! Of course not, Allura!"  
  
"Exactly! So nothing's changed!"  
  
Lotor thinks about it, then nods with his hand on his chin. "You're still my biggest wildest enemy."  
  
"Yup," Allura nods.  
  
"We're still working on the prototype together."  
  
"Yup," she says with an audible sigh.  
  
"What am I gonna tell my friends though?"  
  
Allura chokes. " _Why_ would you tell your friends?!"  
  
She comes over to where he was in heavy strides and only then sees the amused expression he had on. She hits him on the chest. "You don't even have friends!"  
  
Lotor laughs as he catches the hits she's throwing. "I do! N-Nyma asked!"  
  
"And what did you tell her?"  
  
"I told her I'd ask you first."  
  
"You told her you'd ask me?! Why?!"  
  
"I didn't wanna misinterpret the situation!"  
  
"There is no situation! We. Just. Slept together."  
  
"That _is_ the situation! We slept together!"  
  
The thing about having slept with your sworn enemy is that at some point, the bickering feels like flirting. Because Allura's now hyperaware of how warm Lotor really is once you hold him close enough, and Lotor's now irreversibly aware of how soft the skin in the dip of Allura's back is. And both somehow end up feeling like they're just fighting to get the other's attention, and ultimately, into their pants, which is obviously not true. Obviously.  
  
Lotor's wearing the most awful sweatpants with that purple shirt, Allura thinks, but at the same time observes how plump his ass looks in them.  
  
She runs a hand through her hair in frustration. "Nobody else has to know"  
  
"Um, Nyma obviously knows," Lotor points out, "We had sex in her bathroom."  
  
"Well, tell Nyma not to tell people!"  
  
"People will always tell people, Allura, that's the whole point of college!"  
  
"That's _high school_ , Lotor" Allura deadpans. "Nobody cares in college anymore. God, get a life."  
  
Lotor huffs and grabs his phone from his bedside table. It's flooding with texts from Nyma, and a group chat called "The Generals". "They seem to care"  
  
Allura sighs. "Just say it was a one night stand"  
  
"I did."  
  
"Then _why_ are you still asking me what we are?"  
  
He points to his iphone. "Because they keep asking what's after and I don't know how these things go!"  
  
Allura's eyes widen. "Sorry, what?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"It's... I'm- Was that your first one night stand?"  
  
Lotor's whole face turns red. "Y-yeah, in a while"  
  
"Oh my god," Allura cover her mouth with her hand. "Have you never had a one night stand before?"  
  
Lotor takes a step back. "I have! I- God- I do a lot of those-" The back of his knees hit the edge of his bed, and he falls out of balance. He grabs Allura's arm in an attempt to save himself from getting body-slammed into his mattress, but it only causes Allura fall onto the bed with him.  
  
Allura yelps, and she closes her eyes as a reflex. Their foreheads bump into each other, and when Allura opens her eyes again, she's looking into Lotor's dark irises. Suddenly, her whole body is engulfed by his unique warmth.  
  
"Ouch," Lotor murmurs, mostly just to say something.  
  
Allura coughs and immediately starts to lift herself off Lotor's body but just as she shifts her hips, she feels a shy twitch of a part of Lotor that was _definitely_ neither of his feet.  
  
" _Shit_ \- I-um, I didn't-Sorry-"  
  
As much as Allura wanted to be horrified at the situation (which she is), the redness spreading into Lotor's entire face amuses her so much she falls beside him on the mattress in laughter. Lotor's embarrassed face only becomes more red as he adjusts his pants to quiet down that godforsaken item supposedly to be used exclusively for breeding hidden in there that Allura just brushed against. _Damn it,_ okay? So she's his sworn enemy, but he's still just a man!  
  
Allura laughs for almost a whole minute, tears spilling from her eyes and her hand above her hurting stomach. She was gonna get abs from this scenario alone probably - not that she didn't already have abs. Lotor knows that now, and it's one of the reasons they really had to talk about this one night stand debacle.  
  
"Let me- oh my god- let me get this straight-" Allura says between laughter. "You - Mister Richest Bachelor In The Campus - has never had a one night stand--"  
  
"I have _class_ , okay, Allura? I don't just go around- fucking around- I don't- do that!" Lotor retorts, annoyed.  
  
Allura turns to her side and elevates her head with a hand so she can see his expression better. She pokes at him. "And- and you - Mister One Track Science Mind - can actually get boners?!"  
  
Lotor slaps her finger away but Allura just pokes him again. "Who would've known you were actually human? Here I thought you were just a robot, Lotor!"  
  
"That's _insulting_ \- and- and-  _awful_ \- and-!"

Lotor wouldn't have this. What happened to him? What was holding him back? He had been fighting with Allura for years not batting an eye, is he gonna let this go for... well for what? Chivalry?

He composes himself with a deep breath.

"Allura, you know," he says in a low voice. "If you don't stop teasing me-"  
  
"Ooh," Allura interrupts, taunting him. "If I don't stop teasing you what? Hm? You're gonna get a _bigger_ boner? You're gonna have _sex_ with me again? What, are you- _Ah!_ "  
  
It's a swift second. He grabs her by the waist and flips them around. Now he's on top of Allura, reveling in her horrified expression. She's got her eyes closed and her face all contorted, like she's just been pounced by a bear - which she might as well have been - Lotor had such broad shoulders, and he was... stronger than he looked, really. Allura remembers in that tub that they...  
  
"Lotor...wh-what..." She mumbles as she feels him move his face closer. He doesn't say something. She watches him close his eyes and at first she's panicked, then she's embarrassed, then she's back in that tub, high and cold and needing his warmth.  
  
Lotor smells like perfume - the ones you know are expensive. It's lined up in his bathroom in a neat line. The scent is messing with her head. Allura closes her eyes, waiting for that familiar warmth to spread through her lips, half aware this was a mistake, but because and _only_ because, of course, of that _dumb perfume_ with obviously the exact corporate formula for catching girls, she feels... she feels like she wants to kiss him again...  
  
"Aw, look at that, just like a Disney princess," Lotor whispers above her.  
  
Allura opens her eyes, sees him smirking on top of her with the same glint in his eyes as every time he has ever beat her in anything - every science project, every essay contest, and now...  
  
Oh god, this was humiliating.  
  
Now it was Lotor's turn to laugh as Allura's face goes red as a tomato. He doesn't stop laughing, not even after she punches him in the stomach.  
  
She stomps towards his study table with her heart pounding in her chest.  


* * *

  
  
"Alright, then, since we obviously can't just forget about this," Allura says when both of them have regained their composure.  
  
"Oh, trust me, I don't even remember enough to forget," Lotor tells her as he sits himself down on the other side of his study table. He's lying. After that night, there are too many things about Allura now that his brain can't unsee. Like, for example, her breasts. When before he had simply not treated Allura to be human enough, much less a woman, to ever look at that part of her body when they speak, now he has to consciously make the effort.  
  
"First things first. Do _not_ ever tell anyone," Allura explains, going straight to business. She feels slightly awkward having to explain how a one-night-stand works to a 19-year-old. She doesn't look him in the eye.  
  
"And to those who know already? Like _Nyma?_ "  
  
"Admit it happened, but assert it'll never happen again and that we do _not_ have a relationship of any sort."  
  
"That sounds a little defensive," Lotor notes.  
  
"What's your version gonna be, then?!" She snaps at him, visibly irritated.  
  
"I don't know, just brush it off coolly, something like: We were just being teenagers, is all"  
  
Allura buries her face in her hands. "God, you sound like a sixty-year-old pretending to be 'hip with the kids'"  
  
"What was so wrong with that statement?"  
  
"What's wrong, Lotor, is that it's open ended. What, are we gonna stop being teenagers soon?"  
  
" _Yes_ , Allura, when we're _twenty,_ " Lotor says, matter-of-factly.  
  
"I won't be twenty in ten months! Are we gonna keep having sex for 10 months?!"  
  
Lotor smirks. "Your words, not mine."  
  
Allura just glares at him. "Stop it"  
  
"What did I even say?!"  
  
"Ugh! You're insufferable!"  


* * *

  
  
Lotor finally replies to "The Generals".  
  
**(7:09)** Allura and I had a one night stand.  
**(7:10)** But I am never having sex with her again.  
**(7:13)** Because I can't stand her.  
**(7:15)** And she is bad in bed.  


* * *

  
  
"Great! Problem solved!" Allura exclaims, but her heart hasn't quite calmed down since the incident on the bed. Now everytime Lotor comes near her, she feels like he's gonna try and kiss her again, and her brain is repeating _then punch him okay? you better punch him, okay?_ like it's trying to convince Allura to do it when she obviously doesn't need convincing!  
  
"Now," she sighs, and stares at the mess of wirings in front of her.  
  
"Dinner-" Lotor says.  
  
"The prototype-" Allura says at the same time.  
  
Lotor shrugs. "It's dinnertime."  
  
"Already?" Allura looks at Lotor's digital alarm clock and true enough, it says 7:24. "We haven't done anything yet today!"  
  
"Relax, will you? You can stay a while. It's not like I have other plans. I'll have the personal chef bring something up for us," he explains as he walks onto the intercom beside her bed and calls for a "Diak".  
  
God, Lotor sounded like a real asshole when he unconsciously showed off how rich he was, Allura thought. Then she started thinking about how rich people wore chainlink bracelets and suits all the time. Then she started thinking about what Lotor would look like in chainlink bracelets and a fitted suit...  
  
"Earth to Allura? Do you want the beef goulash soup or the seafood chowder for your appetizer?"  
  
"Um," Allura could not, for the life of her, imagine what those dishes look like. "The second one?"  
  
"Okay," Lotor nods, then goes back to the phone. "And I'll have mine with slightly more paprika, thanks, Diak"  
  
Can Lotor cook? Allura thinks. Of course not. How can a man who has a personal chef know how to cook? Right? Somehow, the image of Lotor in an apron bores its way into her mind... then he burns the bacon and cries. Haha, sucker.  
  
"Allura," Lotor calls her again.  
  
"Hm?" She says, trying not to grin at him. "Yes, me?"  
  
"We have grilled prawns, cajun chicken thigh in herbs, and - what was it again, Diak? Asian? Okay -  roasted pork belly in asian greens, which one do you want?"  
  
Allura tries to answer, but, despite her high IQ, the words don't seem to register in her brain. "Look, Lotor, I honestly don't understand any of those, just, pick for me or something"  
  
Lotor nods like an obedient waiter then yaps on to Diak about herbs and rich people food Allura's never heard of. She only caught one line. "Yeah, yeah, cucumber water, she'd like that."  
  
_She'd like that?_ Allura wonders... was he talking about her? What, after decades of fighting with each other for science trophies and top spots, and one night in a tub, he's suddenly the expert in what she'd like? The nerve of this guy.  
  
She _did_ like cucumber water, but how did her clit ever give him that impression, you know?!  
  
"Allura," Lotor calls softly, just as someone would say "honey".  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"There's also mango crepe," he says, then Diak's saying something again. "In honey glazed sauce," he adds. "Do you want some?"  
  
"Um, are you having any?"  
  
Lotor shakes his head. "No, I don't like sweets."  
  
Well, duh. Of course he doesn't like sweets, Allura thinks. He's boring and has no taste buds.  
  
"I'd like a little," she tells him with a smile.  
  
Lotor nods.  
  
Allura takes her gaze away from him, and back to the other robot she really was supposed to pay attention to.  
  
"Thanks," she tells him when he's back on their workspace. "We really could've just gotten McDonalds"  
  
"Ew," Lotor's face scrunches up in disgust, like Allura had just said something offensive like "Heil Hitler".  
  
"All food in McDonalds is made out of styrofoam, Allura. Those things are truly bad for you - for any human being, in fact, I would argue, even to animals," he tells her like he's sixty.  
  
Allura laughs.  


* * *

  
  
So, Lotor didn't expect to have a full-course meal cooked for the two of them. He just wanted to be a good host. When Diak knocks on his room with a tray, a whole set of cutlery, and a candle, then he realizes that he might have overdone it a little bit. Maybe they really should have just gotten McDonalds. Then it wouldn't look like a date. It doesn't even make sense for this to be date, hypothetically. What kind of gentleman sleeps with a woman first and then takes her out (or in this case, in) to dinner? Not Lotor, because this is not dinner - as in _dinner_ dinner. This is just dinner.  
  
"Should I have a table set up, sir?" Diak asks.  
  
"Oh no," Lotor says quickly "Just set it up on the coffee table by the couch."  
  
"Very well," Diak obliges.  
  
Lotor pretends to go back to work, but he's really watching Diak in his peripheral vision.  
  
When Diak attempts to set up the table napkins like a dove, he shakes his head slightly at her, and Diak nods and just sets it down folded neatly.  
  
When Diak tries to set up the candle, Lotor shakes his head vigorously at Diak that Allura almost notices but she was too engrossed in the wirings. Diak gives him a somewhat confused look, but merely obliges.  
  
"Thanks, Diak," Lotor tells Diak when she's on the way out.  
  
"My pleasure, sir," Diak replies. "May you and miss..."  
  
"Allura," Allura prompts her with a smile.  
  
"May you and miss Allura have a rom--"  
  
Lotor's eyes go wide, and he mouths "no" at Diak, whom he knew was about to say _romantic._  
  
Diak coughs. "May miss Allura and yourself have a meaningful dinner, sir"  
  
"Thank you, Diak," Allura tells her with a smile.  
  
"You're very welcome, maam," Diak says then she rolls the tray out to the door.  
  
"Wait, Diak," Lotor calls on. He gets up from his chair and walks up to the female butler at the doorframe.  
  
"Are they home yet?" He mumbles.  
  
Diak speaks in a hushed tone. "Your mother has arrived about an hour ago, sir, but your father is yet to come home. I believe they have a gala to attend tonight as well, so you will have the house to yourself again, I'm afraid."  
  
Lotor just nods, and says another "Thanks". He sighs before shutting the door.  
  
Allura's already on the floor in front of the coffee table. "Oh, this is delicious," she exclaims, having already eaten half of a crepe.  
  
" _That_ is dessert," Lotor notes, judgmentally, as he sits himself down on his couch in front of her. "You know? The thing that you eat after the main course, which you eat after the appetizer?"  
  
"Who died and made you food-eating police?" Allura remarks.  
  
Lotor just rolls his eyes and starts with his soup.  
  
"Do you always eat like this?" Allura asks.  
  
"Stop saying it like you're not rich yourself and probably eat like this as well"  
  
Allura scoffs. "First of all, I do _not_ eat like this. Barely anyone has the time to eat like this, for your information, Lotor." She points her fork at him. "Second of all, I meant like, do you always eat in you room watching _news_?"  
  
"What, did you expect me to watch Disney channel?"  
  
"No, like, isn't that kinda lonely? Why don't eat with your parents?"  
  
Lotor is taken aback by the inquiry. He coughs. "I don't- I don't eat with my parents," he grumbles.  
  
Allura chuckles. "Why not? You know, I used to do this, too - I refused to do things with my parents, I mean, they get super lame sometimes, but then my mom died and I just regretted it, you know?" She takes a bite and then keeps talking with her mouth full. "So, what I'm saying is, parents can be lame but that's something you're gonna miss in the future."  
  
Lotor was starting to get irritated by the conversation.  "Thanks for the bumper sticker quote, princess, but that's not the case."  
  
"What is it then?"  
  
" _Just,_ " Lotor says, trying to brush it off as soon as possible. "My parents work late."  
  
"Oh- oh, alright, that sucks, I'm sorry," Allura says like it's her fault.  
  
"Nah, we see each other in the morning, I get sick of them even," Lotor lies. He hasn't seen his parents in probably a week, and the last time they've seen each other was just for 3 seconds in the driveway.  
  
"God, tell me about it. My dad has some really bad jokes."  
  
"Yeah," Lotor nods. "I get that."  
  
They eat in silence after that, listening to the latest developments in nanotechnology in Taiwan.  


* * *

  
  
Just after appetizer, a limo pulls in on the driveway. Lotor immediately freezes.  
  
He grabs the remote and then turns up the volume of the news on TV.  
  
"Excuse me," he tells Allura, then gets up towards the door.  
  
"Everything okay?" Allura asks.  
  
"Yeah, just, I gotta - I just remembered something important I had to do"  
  
And then he's out the door.  


* * *

  
  
Lotor stands outside of his bedroom door, looking down where the fancy staircase ends. He usually does this on the other side where he doesn't see his dad walk in drunk or high on cocaine and his mom slapping him and his dad throwing things everywhere and them shouting at each other - usually it's all noise to him, just voices he hears behind his door, just glass shattering. But right now, he feels like it's really happening. Like it's real.  
  
No, _surreal,_ like an old movie. Lotor doesn't know why he keeps listening to these arguments, but he does. Maybe to test his maturity. At first, he used to get insecure from these - he felt as a child that he was the reason for their fighting. Come adolescence, he just felt angry - blaming Haggar and Zarkon for being bad parents, and not letting their awful parenting affect his success.  
  
Now... now, he just doesn't feel anything. He's completely desensitized, which is amazing. He's not happy about it, of course, but he's come to accept that it's a part of life.  
  
Still... still when he sees his father slap Haggar across the face, he winces. He's not hurling himself in between them anymore, there isn't a voice in his head anymore that's begging to save her, but still... still he couldn't watch that. Still, he gets upset.  
  
Still, he is so weak.  


* * *

  
"Hey, you wanna go to McDonalds?" Lotor says the first time he gets back through the door.  
  
"What? There's a full-course meal in here!"  
  
"I want a coke float"  
  
"I thought you didn't like sweets?"  
  
"I want a coke float," Lotor repeats.  
  
"Can't Diak make one for you?"  
  
"She makes awful coke floats."  
  
Allura looks at the half-eaten food laid out on the table in front of her. "But what about these..."  
  
Lotor walks up to a cabinet and pulls out disposable Tupperware. "We'll pack them," then he proceeds to gently put every dish in the containers.  
  
Allura's just confused.

* * *

  
  
Allura sees Diak sweep off broken expensive glass on the floor of the mansion as they step out the big doors.  
  
"What happened here?" she asks Lotor.  
  
"I don't know," he answers.  
  
She starts to wonder what kind of life Lotor actually has.

* * *

  
  
They sit in Lotor's black and purple Mustang in the McDonalds parking lot eating gourmet food in tupperwares - or at least Allura is. Lotor is sipping on his Coke Float like it was gin through a straw. Even in Lotor's car, the news is on. Allura's humming to some pop songs she knows Lotor doesn't like, but he doesn't even complain, looking out into the distance at nothing in particular.

"Hey, what's really going on?" she finally asks him.

"What? Nothing," Lotor answers.

"Is it because you didn't want it to look like a date?"

"Huh?" He stops sipping on his coke float.

Allura bites her lip. "Do you- do you like, oh forget it"

Lotor shifts in his seat to look at her. "Do I like what?"

Allura "No, just, ever since that night you've been acting all- oh I don't know, and I guess I get it cause- cause, you know, first one night thing and all, but- I mean- even I would admit that I- Well, I suppose... oh, what am I going on about,"

Lotor blinks. "What _are_ you going on about?"

She takes a deep breath. "You have been acting weird after that night... with the tub" She said as if there was some other night in some hotel room or some forest.

Lotor nods. "I admit that. But... but so did you, Allura."

Allura nods. "That's true."

Lotor sips his coke float. Allura takes a bite of her food, and actually chews this time before speaking again.

"And, you know, just an assessment, our work has so far suffered because of-"

"-how awkward we've become?" Lotor says.

"Yeah. I thought working with my worst enemy would be hard. But working with someone I slept with..."

Lotor chuckles at that.

There is silence for a while - the news on the radio filling the air.

"Maybe," Allura speaks. "Maybe after that night, I did start to find you... how can I say this... mildly attractive"

"You mean I'm hot?" Lotor smirks.

She hits him gently on the chest. "Stop twisting my words!"

He laughs then says, "Yeah, okay, I have to admit as well that my..." he tries not to look at her breasts. "Uh, _perceptions_ of you may have changed as well after that... incident."

Allura chuckles. "You mean I'm hot?"

Lotor rolls his eyes at that. He sips his coke float. "Look, much as it displeases me, my biological vessel finds you... inviting"

"You mean you wanna have sex with me?"

"Stop twisting my words!" He says mockingly, but really his heart is beating a million miles per second waiting for her response.

"Yeah," she says, putting the Tupperware of gourmet food down. "Yeah, me too- God, for some reason, you know?"

Lotor lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He nods. "It's the Romeo and Juliet complex"

"Is that a thing?"

"It's the only thing that could explain this"

Allura nods. She takes her own coke float and raises it up to him. "Cheers"

* * *

  
  
Lotor drives her home. The Tupperwares of gourmet food are now pushed to the backseat. Allura's holding their disregarded prototype.

"So, um, sorry about this but- just to make this clear, we _are_ starting a sexual relationship with each other, right?"

"Sexual, yes, but relationship is kinda... is it the right terminology for what this is?"

Lotor nods. "You're right. Yeah, that's right. Um, sexual..." he looks for words, but just sees the robot in Allura's lap. "...prototype... arrangement"

"A prototype arrangement," Allura repeats it, trying to see what it feels like on her tongue. "I like it."

"Cool," Lotor mumbles, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. "And- and when exactly does this- um, when does this arrangement, like, resume-"

"Are you asking what I think you're asking?"

Lotor gulps. "Yeah. Yes, I am."

"Wow," Allura remarks, then she lets the news on the radio fill the air.

Lotor sweats a little and turns up the AC.

"Well, do you have a condom?" Allura asks.

Lotor almost chokes. "I- yeah, it's- it's in the glove compartment"

Allura's raises both eyebrows at him.

"I like to be prepared, okay!" Lotor says defensively. "You know what, forget it- I take it back, I loathe you and I _don't_ like your breasts and- what- what are you doing?" Lotor asks Allura, whose hand is obviously - if Lotor isn't dreaming this whole thing up - _on his crotch_ literally on top of the part where his dick would be without the sweatpants and the underwear.

"What are _you_ doing?" Allura says. "Stop the car."

And that's the story of how they had sex in Lotor's Mustang in some dark part of the woods.

 

* * *

  
  
Lotor _actually_ dropped Allura home after that, and then they worked on the prototype until 4AM the next morning.

Productivity, thy name is semen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man i wanted to write a sex scene but this chapter's so long already, so maybe in the next one!


	4. Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fool-proof rules to keep sleeping with your sworn enemy/colleague without completely fucking everything up:
> 
> Rule #1: Keep it a secret!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SUP again this took 10 years I'm sorry but you'll see why when you read it. It's very... explicit...

Allura is so good in bed. 

“You’re not so bad yourself,” Allura says between deep breaths as Lotor leaves hickeys on her shoulders while fumbling to undo her bra. It takes him a while, but it's good for her because he compensates with a lot of soft, warm kisses wherever he can get his mouth on. 

Allura's hands undo Lotor's belt, and in a swift whoosh, pulls it down.

Lotor sucks in a breath, then comes back to reality. "What? Did I say that out loud?"

Allura pushes him onto his bed and climbs on top like a porn star. Lotor's cock twitches shamelessly at the image.

"Yes, you did," Allura smiles and - Lotor couldn't believe it even if he tried - she flutters her eyes before palming his semi-hard dick through his boxers.

Lotor hums and closes his eyes. Allura puts her mouth over his cock - God, she thinks, why does he smell like expensive soap? - and laps at the tip, making him shiver.

When Lotor opens his eyes again, his boxers have been discarded, and Allura's lips are glistening with lip gloss or saliva - whatever it is, he wants it. Wants her mouth all over him. He pushes himself up with his elbows. "Allura"

"Mm?" She closes her mouth around him, not moving much yet, just taking him all in as much as she could. The feeling of his dick hardening in her mouth alone was enough to make her wet.

"Ah-I tested gyro accuracy last night and- _oh_ , calibration seems to be off a few- Ah!- I'm ticklish there!"

Allura takes her hands away from Lotor's inner thighs, and comes up to speak. "Sorry. It's lagging?"

Her tongue is shining with pre-come, so understandably, Lotor's kind of distracted. But no matter, he's smart. He has a high IQ. He's got great self-control. He's... reaching to touch Allura's breasts. "Yeah, seems so, could it be the hardware?"

Of all three men Allura's been with, Lotor's been the most gentle with her breasts. His long hands close around them slowly, and he applies pressure in a calculating manner, like if he pressed any harder, they might explode, so he must be very, very careful. 

Allura feels Lotor's cock twitch in her hand as he takes his thumb and pointer finger, and then circles them around her nipples. "Mm, yeah, I mean, maybe. How bad is it?"

"What?" Lotor's face is all red above his dark complexion. "Oh, the-" he coughs. "Quite bad."

Allura strokes Lotor's hard-on while she circles her tongue around the tip. His breath hitches. "Overshoots like a- ah- a bitch. Intended a +7, then turned it to -85, the read- _oh_ , your tongue is so warm, baby-"

Allura stops. "Did you just call me baby?"

"Can you stay on-subject?" Lotor says, irritated, and Allura just rolls her eyes and gets back to his dick. "The readout was fine at first then about a second after it stops it suddenly reads- _fuck,_ fuck yeah, yeah that's- that's so good, that's great"

"Mm, like this?"

"Yes, anyway the readout showed a +20"

Allura pulls away in a swift second. "What?! From the intended +7?"

"I know," Lotor puts his hand on her shoulders and flips them so that he's on top. With his hands gently moving her thighs open, he plants kisses on her breasts, then continues down along her belly, and then down to where Allura really wanted it to be. "I know," he repeated as he drags a thumb across her wet clit. God, so wet, it made his dick throb. Why does she smell like baby powder? "I'm honestly so baffled..."

"Hm, let's see..." Allura mumbles as Lotor got to work with his tongue. "What seems to be the problem... Lower, please, _ah_ \- that's- yeah, there. You tested with the wait-until function in the built-in sensor?"

Lotor raises his thumb up then gracefully places it back down on Allura's thigh as he lazily drags his tongue around Allura's clit.

"Did you write your own while loop?"

He hums yes, and the vibration sends a shudder over Allura's belly.

"And did you debug? _Shit_ , keep going, keep going,"

"Here?"

"Yes, did- _ah_ , did you? Debug?"

Lotor hums another yes, then his fingers tighten their grip on Allura's thighs.

"I- _fuck_ , faster, I don't get it. A little to the le- _mm_ , you guessed it," Allura gasps. "It must be the sensor"

Her body jerks up at a sudden sensation. She grabs onto Lotor's grey sheets below her. "I can't- _ah_ , believe that sensor doesn't work," she continues on between pants. "It-mm, _fuck_ -it cost $100!" She arches up, arm shooting up to grab onto the head of the bed, grabbing on to the wood hardly. "Shit, they even said it had a turning speed of 80-300! Don't stop! Yes, _yes_ , oh my fucking- I'm gonna kill those- Ah, _ah,_ yes, yes, Lotor-!"

Allura releases her grip on the bed, blood flowing back into her white knuckles. Lotor reappears above her, face flushed and lips glistening with Allura's wetness. She bites her lip. Lotor is panting like he just ran a marathon.

He's holding himself up with one hand and palming his rock hard cock on the other. His eyes are fixed on Allura's blue ones. "Look, I even tried lowering the deadband value to 1 from its default 3 but it's just not-"

Allura's gaze is fixated on Lotor's blushing face, but she can see what he's doing in her peripheral vision and the image of his cock inside of her suddenly consumes her whole being.

She grabs onto Lotor's neck with two hands and pulls him down to a hungry kiss. She whispers. "Shut up and fuck me. I know how to fix it."

Good thing for Allura, she's a good multitasker, and she's effectively come up with at least five solutions for the gyroscope problem while Lotor was going down on her. As well as a few versions of how she's going to the supplier and giving them a verbal whipping.

Ah, truly, the clarity that sex gives you - it's as good as adderall.

"That's hot," Lotor murmurs, aligning his cock on Allura's entrance.

She moans when he pushes in. "You said it out loud again-"

"I meant to."

 

* * *

 

"Hey, so, does this font look better for the overall text or is this more like what we're going for?"

Allura's just stepped out of Lotor's shower smelling like a bouquet of flowers, looking like a dream, and being really confused that Lotor just asked her that question when five days ago he wouldn't even let her touch the UI. "Why are you suddenly asking me?" Allura inquires, suspicious.

Lotor shurgs. "Dunno, you look like the kind of person who'd know..." When Allura doesn't reply and just continues to squint her eyes at him, he adds, "You're a woman"

Allura rolls her eyes. There's the Lotor she knows. "That's sexist"

"I just complimented you!" 

"In a sexist way," Allura retorts, sitting down across him on his table to fix the gyro sensor.

"There's really no pleasing women, huh?"

Allura smirks at him. "You're right"

Lotor nods at first before realize what she was implying. He shoots her a betrayed expression. "Oh _please_ , you- you enjoyed- _you_ \- you're such a-"

"Hm?"

Lotor, for a change, lets it go. "Such a liar," he mumbles, gaze coming back to the computer. Allura swears she can make out a little pout if she tried hard enough.

Allura chuckles, then walks up to his mini-fridge to get the coke floats they had delivered before... getting distracted... She places one beside Lotor's laptop and watches him grab it then continue sulking like a kid. She murmurs in his ear, "I'd argue, Lotor, but time is ticking, and that font is nice," She pokes at one of the colors.

Lotor puts down his coke float. "Hm, okay, so the other one must be better," he said as he deleted Allura's choice from the screen with a click.

"What?" Allura excalims.

Lotor sips his drink. "If you like it, it must be a weak font."

Allura shakes her head and just heads over to her side of the desk. "Bitch," she mumbles. "I'll have you know that I did a whole five-paged paper on-"

Lotor cuts her off in a sing-song voice, "Time is ticking, Allura~ Few more days til the presentation~"

Allura sticks her tongue out at him.

 

* * *

 

Sincline, the zero-waste robot, is to be presented to no less than the Chancellor of Altea University herself, the head of the Department of Research, the dean of the College of Sciences, and Mr. Alrich Sages of the Oriande Space Bridge Program.

Therefore, there is to be no space for fuck-uppery for Lotor and Allura.

Meaning: there had to be rules.

 

* * *

 

**Rule #1: Keep it a secret!**

 

245 days til presentation

 

Pretences. It's like getting into a car, driving off, and then realizing an hour later that it was a self-driving car after all. Whether it always had been or it just turned into one was besides the point. When you got in, you input a destination in the GPS, and the self-driving car won't stop until it gets there. You're trapped in that pretense until its bitter end.

As far as people are concerned, Lotor and Allura hate each other. Like characters in a Hollywood reality show, the two oblige the passive audience with some really uncalled-for drama.

"You're wrong," Lotor says out loud while Allura's mid-sentence answering a question about what a golfer would do to win a match if a paper flew on top of the hole when the ball was attempted to be shot in. She was explaining that she'd easily burn the paper beneath the golf ball.

Lotor, by design, begs to differ. "A golf ball is made out of Cis-1, 4-Polybutadeine, Trans-polyisoprene, Zinc Acrylate, Benzoyl Peroxide, and Zinc Oxide. You put something like that over fire, it's going to burn at best and explode at worst."

Allura crosses are arms and turns to him, who was just across the lab table she's sat at. "But a golf ball is encased in polyeurethane. You'd need an ample amount of heat to break through that, but so little to burn paper."

"Point stands that your golf ball has been compromised. Isn't that enough for a disqualification?"

Allura scoffs. "Compromised? How so? You said it yourself. It's Cis-1,4-Polybutadeine. They're  _ cis _ -linked, connected on the same side of a carbon-carbon double bond. How can a substance that resilient be possibly compromised by a little fire?"

Lotor smirks, then shoots her a cocky glare. "The point your missing is that people who play golf aren't smart, Allura. And they don't care about carbon-carbon double bonds. If they open a golf ball, they won't see a polymer of isoprene, they won't see trans-linked bonds - they won't see TPI. They won't even open a golf ball to begin with. People see a little smoke stain on that ball, and it's as good as compromised." he breathes. "The human eye can be so..." he looks around the room. "...shallow."

The energy of about twenty people rolling their eyes at that filled the air.

There is a pause, then Allura speaks. "Have you ever played golf before?"

Lotor pulls back. "How's that relevant?"

Allura shrugs. "I just wanna know if you're speaking from experience or you're just being a dick"

The whole chemistry class erupts into contained laughter.

"Alright, alright, that's enough from you two," their professor announces, then coughs. "And that's enough for me, too," he mumbles. "I shall henceforth never share personal anecdotes in class again"

"Well, what happened to your cousin, sir? Did he win the match? What did he do?" Allura inquires.

"Oh, he cheated," the professor answered. "He took the paper from beneath the golf ball, shot it down the hole, and called it a day."

"Oh, hm, that's pretty boring," Allura comments.  


"It's sensible," Lotor retorts.

The professor just shakes his head at them. "Anyway, back to chemicals that aren't in a golf ball..."

 

* * *

 

Ten minutes after the encounter, Allura receives a text from Lotor.

> **(11:38) What is your opinion on fucking on a lab table?**

Allura almost chokes on air when she reads it. Beside her, Matt asks if she's alright. She nods and then shoots a subtle scandalized expression at Lotor.

She gets another text alert.

> **(11:39) I take that as a no then :-(**

 

* * *

 

As it turned out, though, when the bell rings, and people rush out of the room towards their lives, Lotor and Allura are left inside.

"Hey, you two taking long?" The professor asks before he goes.

Allura smiles and nods, "Yes, professor, I'm making Romelle a perfect duplicate of our mixture today so I can properly explain it to her when I get to her dorm."

"Hm, she's still sick, huh?"

"Terribly so"

"You're a good friend, Allura"

"Thanks, sir"

He turns to Lotor. "And you?"

"Hm?" Lotor looks up and takes his goggles off. "Am I a good friend? I suppose so"

Their professor rolls his eyes. "No, I mean, why are you doing overtime at the lab today like Miss Allura here?"

Lotor just shrugs. "I'm looking into organic chemistry"

"But we're not there yet..." the professor notes.

"Yeah," Lotor nods. "You're not, but I am," he explains then puts his goggles back on, back to his experiment.

The professor just shakes his head at him. "Well, I'm leaving. You guys lock up - and  _ don't _ kill each other"

"I’ll try, sir," Allura replies.

"Hm," Lotor says at the same time.

They work in silence for maybe around ten minutes until Lotor gets up to take a timer from the cupboard beside Allura. Then, the air turns heavy.

He coughs. "Hey"

Allura looks at him but immediately averts her gaze away. "Hey"

Lotor takes the timer and closes the cupboard. "Are you really, uh, doing Romelle's... assignment or something?"

Allura takes her goggles off and nods. "Yeah, I am. Are you really studying up on organic chemistry?"

Lotor sets the timer down on his lab table with a nod. "Yeah"

He takes his experiment and puts it over a fire, then sets the timer beside it.

Allura coughs. "How, uh, how long is that for?"

Lotor takes his goggles off and rests it on the table gently. "Fourteen minutes," he answers.

Allura nods, and rests her own goggles in her table. "Well, I'm done with mine, it's actually quite an easy mixture." She takes a quick perimeter check, opening and then closing the blinds, then she locks the door. Lotor follows her with his eyes.

She clears out one of the lab tables carefully. "We better clean up now"

Lotor nods. "Yeah, yeah that's a good idea." He watches her take her hair tie off and then looking straight into his eyes as she leaned into one of the lab tables.

"How much longer now?" Allura asks.

Lotor takes a quick look at the timer. "13 minutes, 12 seconds"

Allura pauses, as if to think, and then pulls her lab coat off hurriedly. "Yeah, I can work with that."

Lotor basically runs to her, taking his own coat off, and then hoisting her up the cold steel table. Allura wraps her legs around him and pushes him closer. He moans just at that scenario. It's probably one of his most long-running fantasies to fuck on a lab table. Unsanitary, yes, but hot as fuck nevertheless.  


"You're eager," Allura teases in between sloppy kisses. She reaches down to grab his cock and is surprised to find it so hard so fast. It almost makes her mouth water.

Lotor moans again as she strokes him, and then pulls his belt open. The sound makes Allura wet. In a quick motion, Lotor's pants are down, and he's pulled Allura's shirt and bra up to suck on her breasts like a hungry baby.

"Mmm," Lotor hums, so aroused at this point he only hears static, and Allura gasping and breathing in front of him.

Down the hall outside, people are still shuffling about, going to lunch, and as they clear out, Lotor's moaning in the lab goes louder and louder.

As he grinds his clothed dick on her, Allura puts a hand around his mouth, and whispers in his ear. "Listen, Lotor, there are people outside, hm? And if they hear us, we're fucked. So can you keep silent for me? Please?"

"I don't- _hah_ \- I don't think I can, I'm so- Feels so- _Mm_ \- wait," Lotor grabs Allura's face with his hands, shaking from the want. "Allura," he says in between pants. "Why- why don't you- why don't you g-gag me?"

Allura's eyes shot wide open, and her body immediately pulls Lotor closer as she grabs a handkerchief from her back pocket and ties it around his mouth.

She looks at him - eyes wild with desire, mouth wet behind the gag. He looks absolutely ravishing. She plants a soft kiss on his forehead, then on his neck, then she bites the edge of her earlobe, earning a twitch from his dick. She whispers to him, "Now..." she licks the back of his ears and he shudders. "Now, Lotor, you can fuck me"

 

* * *

 

Lotor did not last the whole 13 minutes and 12 seconds.

 

* * *

 

212 days til presentation

 

To truly keep a secret, there must be mutual trust. But trust is hardly something one would just give their one sworn enemy now, is it? So Lotor and Allura found a more (arguably) effective way to ensure fidelity. 

“Mutually Assured Destruction,” Lotor announces as he lays a flash drive on the table Diak set up in his room for them for dinner. It was complete with dove-shaped table napkins now and candles and everything, but it was in no way misconstrued by both parties. Lotor and Allura knew that their relationship was purely sexual. Diak, on the other hand, cannot be convinced. Hence, the heart-shaped desserts this evening.

“What’s that, your porn stash?” Allura teases, taking the purple flash drive that Lotor laid in front of her.

“Oh, it’s much more… disgracing than that.”

Allura smirks and then gets up towards her laptop. “Don’t worry, Lotor. You hardly held any grace to begin with, so you’re not losing much”

She plugs it in, grinning in anticipation, and a folder pops out: “Oriande”. Her grin falls. She glares at him. “Oh please, Lotor, is this, what, your Oriande stash? All your research? How on earth is this in any way humiliating?”

“Just shut up and open it, will you?”

Allura does, and her expression changes from annoyed and disappointed to confused and intrigued in a swift second. “What…” she murmurs as she clicks one of the thumbnails. It’s… Lotor… but younger, and he has braces!

“ _Captain’s Log #1_ ,” Young Lotor says through laptop screen. He must be about 11. He’s in a room much more different than this one. Behind him, Allura can make out glow in the dark plastic stars, a lava lamp, buzz lightyear sheets, and that huge solar system model he made at the science fair long ago.

“ _As we know, the Kerberos mission launched today._ ” Young Lotor narrates excitedly at the camera. This boy is not like the one Allura knows. His eyes shine with so much wonder. He moves at such a reckless,unbothered way. He does not seem to care for whatever, except maybe space. Allura remembers him to be the boy who pulled her pigtails at school after she beat him at the spelling bee, but this boy that she’s watching now - he was a child, and he was unashamed to be so.

“ _The Oriande space bridge program sent the best scientist on board - Dr. Holt. He’s my idol,_ ” Young Lotor smiles, a genuine one with the braces showing and his eyes twinkling, not the kind of smile Lotor throws around now, which was calculated and contained.

Young Lotor gets up from his chair and paces, though talking as if he was telling an anecdote to a friend - only, there was no one else around but him. He explains, “ _I read his paper on the origin of white holes. It took a while because the concepts were really high-level physics. But I had my tutor explain it to me, and since then, I’ve been trying to acquire all of his dissertations_ ,” He runs back up to the camera and whispers, “ _I don’t think Dr. Holt’s legacy is his white hole theory. For me, Dr. Holt’s brainchild is the Kerberos mission. Let me tell you all about it!”_

19-year-old Lotor stood behind Allura, trying to contain his embarrassment but it leaks at the ends of his ears, red like a fresh tomato. But Allura does not notice. She’s too busy opening thumbnail after thumbnail of the Oriande folder.

“ _My butler took me to the planetarium today. I looked for ages into the fake sky to find it… but Kerberos wasn’t mapped in!”_ Young Lotor huffs. _“This is discrimination. Like this video or comment down below if you think so. I know I do!_ ”

“ _When I grow up, I’m gonna be an astronaut scientist just like Dr. Holt, and I’ll make things like… hmm… dissertations! That's D-I-S-S-E-R-T-A-T-I-O-N. Allura beat me at the spelling me for that word, so don’t ever forget that dissertation is spelled with two S’s!”_ Another young Lotor narrates.

Allura opens another one. “ _Captain’s Log #126: Exciting news from the Oriande!”_

And then another one. “ _Captain Log’s #407: I got a lot of gifts from my parents, and they’re real expensive too, but my favorite is this one that Diak gave me,_ ” Young Lotor says excitedly as she shows the (obviously thrifted) Oriande: the Space Bridge Program t-shirt given by his nanny. He wears it on-screen. “ _Look! It’s beautiful, isn't it?_ ”

“ _Captain’s Log #2111_ ,” Young Lotor’s voice cracks. “ _Th-the Kerberos m-mission… it’s… failed._ ”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Lotor announces, closing the laptop in front of her. “Time for your nuke.”

Allura stares at the closed laptop, frozen in a state of shock. She turns to Lotor and asks, “Did you make vlogs for… every…” she trails off.

“Everyday since the Kerberos mission launched, Lotor supplied.

“Every Oriande mission too?”

“Every mission until Kerberos”

“What was so special about Kerberos?” Allura asks.

Lotor looks down at his feet, disappointed and abashed like it was his fault that the Kerberos mission didn't turn out as expected. He mumbles, “It was the only one to fail.”

There’s a silence for a few seconds, then Allura just bursts out laughing. “Oh my g-god,” she says in between outbursts of giggles. “You- you’re really a whole geek aren’t you?” She points at his blushing face. “You’re the real thing!”

Lotor moves her finger away. “Blah blah, yours better be as humiliating or I’m calling foul play.”

Allura runs her laughter for a few more seconds before reaching over to grab something in her expensive handbag.

A notebook.

It’s pink. It's got a unicorn on the cover, and a small lock with a small key on the side. Lotor unlocks it with a flip, and on the first page, the words _“Allura’s Diary”_ were written in cursive.

Lotor smirks.

“First one I ever got,” Allura explains, hands hugging her torso. “I was, maybe 11? Around that age.”

“Was that…”

“The time we first moved to Daiba,” Allura nods.

“The time you first moved to  _ my  _ school,” Lotor clarified, voice laced with some disdain.

“Oh please, you’re not still bitter about my beating you to the top 1 spot in  _ middle school _ , are you?”

Lotor glares at her. “I’ll always be bitter about that, Allura.” She rolls her eyes.

Lotor flips through the diary. One page has a picture of Justin Timberlake pasted in. The one where he had cornrows. A heart is drawn around it. Lotor chuckles.

“ _Mrs. Justin Timberlake?_ ” He bursts out laughing when he reads the signature of that diary entry.

Allura blushes and pouts. “Everyone loved him! I was peer pressured!”

Lotor ignores her and just keeps flipping through. There’s a lot of mention of Justin Timberlake (all of which he makes a point to laugh really loudly at), but there's probably equally a lot of mentions of... himself.

“ _Lotor challenged me to a game today_ ,” he reads the entry. “ _Who can recite the multiplication table faster? Well, ME, but he cheated._ ”

Lotor turns to Allura, an incredulous look on his face. “What?”

“Narti mumbled 49 when you froze after 7 x 7,” Allura says matter-of-factly, the memory crystal clear in her head for some reason.

"How would you even know that if you had your back turned?"

She shrugged. "I felt like you did it"

Lotor wanted to say that never happened, and Allura’s just a delusional kid, but that definitely sounded like something he would do, so he let it go and just flipped through more pages.

“ _Lotor is evil. I know it_.” Young Allura wrote.

“There isn’t even an explanation! You just accused me to be some kind of deviant!”

Allura shrugs. Lotor is starting to feel severely discriminated upon right now 

“ _I beat Lotor at the spelling bee today! Take that, sucker!_ ” Another entry read.  


Lotor shoots her an unamused expression. She just smiles and mumbles, “Yeah, that moment felt good. Still does, even.”

Lotor flips almost all the way to the end. It’s not about him anymore, or school, or Justin Timberlake.

It’s the shortest entry in the diary - just three words, and yet, it had a lot of impact. In cursive, Young Allura writes: " _I miss mom_.”

Lotor does not read that out loud.

When he looks up from the unicorn-covered diary, Allura’s got a hand reaching out to him.

“Truce?”

Lotor puts the diary down beside the laptop. He locks the notebook, and then takes her hand for a shake.

“Truce.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 things:
> 
> (1) Somebody get a windshield cleaner cause it's filthy in here!  
> (2) Can you IMAGINE how much TIME I spent researching shit about robotics and chemistry just to write fucking SEX SCENES?! That's dedication, if I do say so myself.
> 
> See ya in the next one. Peace out bongtors!


	5. Small Talks & Favors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uh-oh! The fondness meter is a-rising!

**Rule #2: Quality Control**

 

192 days til presentation 

 

Needless to say, Lotor and Allura have good sex, but there’s always room for improvement.

When Sincline's laser-powered pressed plastic technology is maintained by an intricate AI-integrated program that employed the latest developments in machine learning, Lotor and Allura's prototype romance was maintained by a simple 1-step quality control system:

They actually talk to each other now.

“You know, some of the things you do are really emasculating,” Lotor says once, as they’re both coding on their laptops on Allura’s study table.

He’s thinking about all the times Allura’s ever tied him up or gagged him, or the fact that she always wants to be on top, like, she might as well buy a strap-on at this point, and as of right now, Lotor thinks that’s gross, but when the time comes, he’ll probably give in out of sheer arousal.

“Really?” Allura replies, eyes set on her code. “Maybe masculinity is just that fragile.”

Lotor takes a pause to think about that statement. What does it mean? Men are easily offended? Psh. No they’re not. If anything, women are easily offended. Men, or at least Lotor is, very professional and respectful and wow that was a really mean thing to say about his whole gender and it’s really kind of offending him right now--

“Fair point,” Lotor concludes.

“Which things don’t you enjoy?” She inquires.

“Oh, actually, I enjoy all of them,” Lotor says almost immediately. “I’m just saying some of them might be really emasculating.”

Allura laughs at that. “Okay, duly noted.”

“What about the things I do? Which ones don’t you enjoy?” He fights the urge to bite his lip in nervousness as he waits for her answer.

Allura thinks about it. She finds it endearing how he tries so hard to be gentle, but gets impatient in the end and does it rough, which is how she likes it in the first place. Lotor is actually very good in bed, but surprisingly shy at times. “It’s not what you do, it’s what you don’t. I really want to hear you moan more”

“Don’t I? I think I’m terribly loud”

“Hm, when you’re close, but you make an effort to contain some sounds when you’re conscious enough.”

“Hm,” Lotor nods. “Okay.”

After a short silence, Lotor looks up from his laptop. “Wanna have sex?”

Allura clicks the save button on her computer and immediately jumps in his arms. “I’m in the middle of deployment so hurry it up,” she says.

“Mm-hm,” Lotor replies. After almost weekly sessions of these sexual activities, he’s learned to hold Allura in a more manly manner. He grips the side of her hips and carries her to his bed. She yelps and then laughs, gently hitting his torso before rushing back into a deep kiss.

Lotor pulls out for air. Allura is pinned below him, skin glistening beneath the sunlight that slipped past his window. “Allura,” he smiles before diving back to kiss the side of her earlobe. He whispers in her ear, “Do you like the sound of my voice?”

The sensation tickles and Allura laughs, moving her face away but Lotor’s lips chase it. “I don’t really know what to say, but, I’ll try to be more vocal for you,” he whispers brokenly as he tries to hold back a laugh.

Allura’s in a fit of giggles below him, “Stop it”

He takes on a more seductive tone and whispers slowly, “I thought you liked this,” then he proceeded to kiss along her neck, with overaccentuated moaning. “Mm, mm, your skin’s soft and… very… pigmented… with melanin-” He eventually gets overtaken by laughter, giving Allura the opportunity to flip them and firmly place her legs on either of his hips.

Allura, having composed herself from the giggle fit holds Lotor’s wrists up as she plants a kiss on his lips. “Shush it or I’ll gag you.”

Lotor just smirks. “Why don’t you?”

 

* * *

 

171 days til presentation 

 

When they ran out of things to talk about pertaining to their sexual life, the two eventually moved on to other conversation topics.

"Hey, have you seen Lady Bird?" Allura mentions as they sit side by side in front of Lotor's two-monitor Mac trying to finalize the user interface for the app that's going to accompany Sincline.

Lotor’s sat there, mildly confused. Mostly, they just talked about the news. Politics or whatever. This… development is… very unexpected. He composes himself. "Do I look like someone who's seen a... _Lady Bird_? Isn't that a cartoon?"

Allura laughs. It’s truly a mystery to her how Lotor can be so clueless about pop culture. Only someone who’s actively trying to isolate himself from the world would ever be like that - like North Korea. Lotor was like North Korea. "No, silly. That's Ladybug. Lady Bird is a coming-of-age film. It's my favorite movie. It even won an oscar."

"I don't like coming-of-age films."

Allura gasps. "Why?"

Lotor shrugs. "I can't relate."

She snorts at the response. "What?"

"Adolescents are subpar members of the human race. They're motivations are short-lived, changeable, they're too 'free-spirited' for their own good. Rich kids binge buy so much with little to no concern for the economy. Not to mention all teenagers ever think about is sex..."

Allura's just looking at him with an expression he can't name.

"What?" he asks.

"That kinda sounds like someone I know," she smirks.

It takes him almost a minute to get the joke.

 

* * *

 

“What movies do you like, then?” Allura blurts out in the middle of dinner. This week, they’d been spending dinner together more because the assembly of the robot was just so intricate and required more time.

Also because Diak just wouldn’t stop offering and they’ve grown tired of declining to her.

“Oh, I just watch documentaries,” Lotor answered coolly.

Allura almost spat out her food. “Shut up. That’s a lie.”

Lotor laughed at the sight. “What?”

She points a finger at him, “Cat’s out of the bag, Lotor. I saw your vlogs. You, who never missed an episode of Jimmy Neutron, you couldn’t possibly just enjoy documentaries, do you? I mean they get so… boring sometimes.”

Lotor shove her finger away. “Maybe you’re just not sophisticated enough to properly enjoy them.”

Allura doesn’t by the cocky remark. “What is it, really? It’s something embarrassing isn’t it? Is it High School Musical? Is it The Notebook-?”

“Alright, alright,” Lotor sighs. “It’s… um… it’s a 1974 film called Dark Star”

Well, that wasn’t what Allura expected. “What now?”

Lotor puts his fork down. “It’s about a group of astronauts who’re sent on a mission to destroy other civilizations that may threaten us in the future. And, see, understandably, the special effects are bad but the rhetoric of the film is very _very_ -” Allura watches as Lotor becomes more and more animated as he narrates how interesting and relevant this film about people out to kill planets is. It’s like the boy from the vlogs again. She smiles at the image.

“What? What’s wrong? Do I have something on my face?”

“Hm? No?”

“Why are you smiling at me like that?” Lotor asks, suspicious.

Allura’s face feel warmer. “Nothing,” she shakes her head.

Lotor squints his eyes at her.

“Nothing! I swear!” Allura laughs, and when Lotor still doesn’t let her be, she lies, “You’re just such a big fat nerd, is all”

Lotor actually pouts at that, and not even a subtle not-pout but a real, actual pout. He looks like a tabby cat. It tugs at something in Allura’s heart.

“I meant that in a good way,” she clarified, sipping her cucumber water.

 

* * *

 

154 days til presentation 

 

“Hey, what do you think of Romelle?” Allura suddenly asks one day after a big fight with her bestfriend.

Lotor, whose balls deep inside her on her queen-sized mattress, is unsure how to respond to the question. “Um, I don’t? I don’t really… think of her… is she… relevant in… our business… currently?” Don’t get him wrong. He likes it when Allura talks in bed. Her voice completely changes from the most annoying note in the universe to a sweetheart goddess from heaven if that place ever exists. But this time, he’s gotta admit, it’s really gotten quite weird.

Allura bounces on his dick like it was nothing. “I’m just saying, am I the only one who thinks she’s kind of a bitch?”

“Aren’t you friends?”

“Mm, I guess,” she mumbles, circling her hips in a way that made Lotor’s toes curl.

“God, do that again,” he tells her.

She complies with a smirk, “Like this?”

“Mm, yeah”

“Mm,” Allura gasps, then gets back to her train of thought. “But- but anyway, I don’t really think we’re friends after all”

“What? Who? Oh. What?”

“I just- _mm_ \- I just feel like we don’t really get on that well, I mean, she’s a- _ah_ \- a Republican, I don’t even know how we became friends in the first place. _Fuck._ Cause we were from the same town?”

“Allura, _fuck_ , that’s- keep going-”

On the contrary, she stops to take in the possibility that her bestfriend had not really been the best of a friend she could be after all, while Lotor’s lying below her, really confused and quite scandalized. She asks him, “You’ve seen me and her, albeit maybe in a bad light, but we’re good friends aren’t we?”

Lotor has an incredulous expression on his face. He pulls himself up to wrap his hands around her, shaking at the sensation the change of position gave to his dick. Panting, he explains, “Honestly? No.  Whatever it is that’s bothering you, it’s probably not your fault. Romelle is a manipulative bitch and I feel like she’s just using you for schoolwork and I really don’t understand why a woman like yourself would hang out with such a dimwit, I mean I know she’s famous or whatever, and to be friends with her would mean being friends with her friends but, for fuck’s sake, Allura, she’s a Republican. _Drop her_. Can we have sex now?”

In the weirdest possible circumstance, Allura finds comfort in Lotor.

 

* * *

 

130 days til presentation 

 

"Why did you hate me so much back then?" Allura says out of the blue as they're fixing wirings in her room.

Lotor actually stops what he's doing to raise his eyebrows at her. "Is that a real question?"

When Allura doesn't reply and just proceeds to sort through some wiring, Lotor dips his face near hers to dramatically explain further, "You went into my turf and stole my spot. It's really... really simple, Allura. I hated you for that."

Allura shrugs and just keeps on working. "Yeah, but, why did you, I dunno, never get over it?"

"Cause you never stopped trying to one-up me!"

"I was never trying to do that!"

Lotor crosses his arms and squints his eyes at her. "Yes, you were."

Allura bites her lip. "Maybe a little. But only because you started it!"

There's a look on Lotor's face that says 'touche', then he finally focuses back on work and mumbles. "I don't like losing"

"No shit," Allura remarked, then after a short pause said, "I'm glad we're alright now"

Lotor smiles. "Yeah. For as long as you don’t one-up me again”

“I wouldn’t dream of it”

 

* * *

 

106 days til presentation 

 

It’s Sincline’s first test run, and as Lotor jokes about that one scene from Dark Star, Allura thinks maybe she’s become friends with her sworn enemy without her realizing.

 

* * *

 

**Rule #3: Fair Trade**

 

88 days til presentation 

 

“You know, Allura, I really like this thing that we have,” Lotor explains from his bed. Allura’s all the way inside the open bathroom, doing make up or whatever other things women do after taking a bath. Maybe they recite pi to the millionth digit, because that’s approximately how long they take inside.

“I’m saying that, of course, in the most pragmatic way,” Lotor continues. “I mean, the organizational model of this whole thing really ought to be studied by the social sciences. Do you know anyone from there? I’d read that dissertation. I might even help to write it. But that would probably be a conflict of interest, no?”

With a simple “hm” from Allura, Lotor continues, “It’s a simple but very rewarding arrangement. I get you off. You get me off.”

“Uh-huh,” Allura remarks absent-mindedly.

“Because you’re not my girlfriend, and I’m not your boyfriend. And we’re not-“ he gestures quotations even tho Allura can’t see. “-in love, there’s no reason for this to be unconditional.”

Allura again just hums in approval, obviously paying attention to more important things than Lotor’s ranting, but the white-haired boy carries on. “We’re equals. There’s no organizational hierarchy. No chivalry bullshit, no patriarchy. It’s just two bros fucking, you know?”

Allura stops mid-wing, and says, “Did you just call us bros?”

Lotor ignores the remark altogether, proceeding to his train of thought. “That’s how the relationship model should work - not that this is a relationship of any sort, but for the lack of a better term —“

“Okay...” Allura’s slightly listening now.

“But yes, it shouldn’t be unconditional - ala Jesus - no one party should have to sacrifice or suffer just so the other would be happy. It should be more economical than that. More efficient. Like this: mutual satisfaction, fair trade.”

Allura smacks her lips together, takes a quick once-over of herself in the mirror, fixes a mascara smudge at the side of her right eye, and then emerges out of the bathroom looking like this generation’s Audrey Hepburn in a bathrobe.

To her surprise, the image that greets her is Lotor on his bed, trousers and underwear to his knees, and he’s stroking his semi-hard cock lazily with his eyes closed and face flushed.

She crosses her arms at the sight, honestly quite offended.

When Lotor’s eyes peek open, he sees Allura’s judgemental look at the edge of his bed. He stops. “I-you were taking so long”

Allura shakes her head at him. “There is a woman in your bathroom and you just—“ she gestures to his shameful act.

Lotor shrugs. “Well, you’re here now?” He says and then takes off his shirt.

Allura smirks and then comes over slowly. “Close your eyes,” she tells him.

Excitedly, Lotor shuts his eyelids closed. Allura takes a detour to his tie closet and grabs two silk ones. She positions herself above him, licks across his earlobe for effect, and then starts tying his hands to his bed posts.

“What—what are you doing?”

“Shush,” Allura says with a devilish grin. Below, she can feel Lotor’s dick harden beneath her ass.

She gets up from him, earning a little whine from Lotor. “Where are you going?” He asks, almost in a pleading tone.

Allura takes a chair from his study table, positions it in front of his bed and then smiles innocently. “I’ll just be here”

Lotor’s got a confused expression now. “Th-what? Why?”

Allura takes her bathrobe off and then  begins to touch her breasts. She moans at the sensation.

“Ah-Allura... why are you—“

Lotor’s inquiry is cut off when Allura moans from touching her clit. She licks her finger before dragging it back down as Lotor watches both in horror and arousal.

“Do you wanna touch me?” Allura asks him, the teasing tone goes straight to his dick.

Lotor swallows. “I-yes”

She smiles. “Why?”

Arousal fogs Lotor’s vision and causes his words to jumble over. “I— because— I want to— I want to fuck you—“

“That’s it?”

He gulps. “I’ll— I want to... kiss along your neck...”

Allura feels the sensation as if it’s there. She closes her eyes and hums. “Carry on...”

“I want to lick your breasts,” Lotor says, more confident now. “Until you’re all ticklish and begging me to go lower...”

“Well, go lower,” Allura mumbles, eyes still closed, the whole scenario unfolding beneath her eyes.

“Not yet,” Lotor says in a low voice. His dick is throbbing in between his legs; it’s painfully hard now. “I want to kiss your stomach first. My hands—mm” Lotor couldn’t help but moan as Allura traces her stomach with her hands, the pace of her fingers across her clit quickening. “My fingers on your thighs. Then on your clit...”

“ _Ah_ ,” Allura moans, pace quickening again.

“Allura—“ Lotor beckons, writhing in his bed for any friction. “Let me fuck you,” his voice drops an octave. “Please”

She moans across him. Finally she opens her eyes, dazed and aroused. She tries to keep eye contact as she inserts a finger in. “ _Fuck_ ,” Lotor moans in his bed across her.

“What now?” Allura asks, face flushed beyond make up could ever achieve.

“Fuck, I’ll fuck you. Hard. Fast.”

“Like th-this?”

“ _Fuck_ —“ The scene plays out like a porno and Lotor dick is aching to come. “P-please, why are— why are you doing this, Allura?” He says in desperation, tugging at his retraints.

Allura tries to muster a smirk for him.  And the punchline... “F-fair trade, L-lotor,” she whispers, then she fucks herself with her neatly-manicured fingers until she’s writhing in her seat, screaming Lotor’s name.

 

It takes three strokes two minutes later for Lotor to cum so hard it splatters across his face.

 

* * *

 

60 days til presentation 

 

Eventually the Fair Trade clause began to be used for favors.

It all began one random day after Allura was ranting about Romelle again. What started it was one Caramel Latte with almonds and whipped cream.

“Sorry I’m late, I got you coffee if you like,” Lotor mumbles as he comes in Allura’s room with two Starbucks cups.  
  
Allura’s surprised but gives Lotor the benefit of the doubt anyway. Maybe he just ordered two coffees by accident and couldn’t risk the palpitations that came with drinking two ventis in a row. 

But when Allura opens the cup, she’s surprised by something both cute and suspicious (something rarely achieved by anyone other than Lotor). “Is this... a caramel latte with almonds and whipped cream?”

Lotor’s ears turn red beneath his hair. He coughs. “Yeah, I took a wild guess at what you might like.”

But they both knew that Allura declared it to be her favorite drink in her teenage diary because Justin Timberlake, her self-proclaimed husband, said it was his favorite in an interview once to promote a now-bankrupt brand.

Allura coughs, not wanting to acknowledge the embarrassing diary herself. “Well, thanks,” she bites her lip. “Admiral Lotor”

Lotor almost chokes on his coffee, hearing the obvious reference to his Oriande vlogs where he constantly raved about being the next Admiral of the Oriande Space Program.

The biggest awkward silence ensues.

In an attempt to avoid the subject of being in possession of each other’s most private and intimate belongings, Lotor coolly runs a hand across his hair and declares, “You owe me now”

And that started the streak.

 

* * *

 

31 days til presentation 

 

**(11:18) Lotor**

(11:19) Yes?

**(11:20) I’m outside your house**

(11:21) Okay, come in

**(11:22) No, silly. Go out.**

(11:23) Okay. Why?

**(11:24) Cause I owe you.**

 

She drives him into the suburbs, her convertible’s roof down despite Lotor’s protests that the pollution will be severely detrimental to their health, not to mention it was a cousin of the convertible that caused the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand to be so easy, and so spark the first world war.

“Lotor, just chill okay,” Allura tells him, chuckling as she blasts the 1975 blasts from the speakers. “No one’s assassinating us where we’re going.”

“Where _are_ we going?” Lotor asks like an impatient kid.

Allura smirks, eyes on the wheel. “I told you, it’s a surprise”

“I don’t like surprises,” Lotor mumbles to himself, but Allura heard it and she remarks, “No shit.”

They watch the skyscrapers get replaced with typical American homes with big lawns and paint peeling from their old shutters. The streetlights shining brighter as the light pollution quiets. When they turn a particular street, Lotor figures it out.

“The observatory!” He exclaims, to which Allura just smiles.

“Nice try, but it’s closed down fifteen years ago and you know it”

Lotor slumps back down on his chair. “So where are we going?”

“The next best thing,” Allura answers.

 

* * *

 

“Oh my god”

“I know right?”

“How is Vrepit Sal’s still open?” Lotor asks, dumbfounded. He’s walking up to the pub next to the closed observatory, remembering the countless moments Diak took him there to get a beer in the middle of babysitting. People always gave her dirty looks for bringing a kid to a bar, but Lotor never caught on until later in his life.

“You wouldn’t stop talking about how much you missed it in your vlogs so I thought-”

Lotor excitedly takes her hand and pulls her in, and the place is just how he remembers it. An ornamental juke box, images of ladies in bikinis on the wall, and even… Sal, who’s hair is white now but he’s still behind the bar. He looks at Lotor with an odd expression.

“Are you-?”

Lotor’s nodding excitedly. “Diak’s kid!”

“Dear God, I really am old now”

Allura’s never seen Lotor smile so big. “Do you still have milk?” He asks.

“We never served milk here, kiddo. I’ve been giving you portions of my own son’s milk cause your babysitter keeps telling me to just give you booze”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah! Has she been fired yet?”

“Oh, no, no, she’s still with us, I mean, your son’s milk…”

“Oh, yeah. With how much Diak came in here to drink, you sort of were like a son to me too”

Lotor’s heart is filled with something he hasn’t felt since he won his first science fair and Zarkon (who wasn’t yet the lovable alcoholic he is now) first told him he was proud of him. As another customer rolls into the bar, Sal tells him one things before attending to them. “Listen, you’re legally allowed to drink now so... anything you want. On the house.”

“Thanks, Sal,” Lotor tells him with the most genuine smile he’s ever worn in a few years.

Allura pops up beside him, already with two mugs of beer in her hands. “You like my surprise?”

Lotor doesn’t know what to say. “I… is this what I get for the caramel latte?”

“No, silly,” Allura says fondly. He doesn’t realize how much he likes it when she calls him that until now. Silly. It just fits. It feels right, for some reason. He’s silly.

She hands him one of the mugs of beer. “This is what you get for the caramel latte. This-” she gestures around the whole place. “This is for helping me with Romelle.”

“What?”

Allura takes a big gulp from her beer. “I decided to finally drop her. Like you said. Because you’re right, she’s manipulative. When I told her I wasn’t going to organize her birthday party this year, she told all her friends that I had a nose job! And I just-”

“Wait,” Lotor interrupts. “I hate to stop you in this very interesting moment of you telling me about women’s gossip, but… when did I say that?”

Two hundred days ago, Allura would’ve infuriated by this. But today, it just… was Lotor. It’s what he was like. Unbothered by “unimportant things” but really, he’s insightful when he wants to be. He isn’t as bad as she thought him out to be. He’s really rather… silly. “It doesn’t matter,” she tells him. “The important thing is that those people didn’t believe I had a nose job, and Romelle is officially out of my life.”

Lotor raises a glass at her. “She always was a manipulative bitch”

Allura nods.

“And a Republican,” Lotor added.

They laughed.

“Thanks for this, Allura,” he says genuinely, looking her in the eyes. “I owe you”

 

* * *

 

10 days til presentation 

 

They finish it. The robot. The app. The paper. This chapter’s almost over, and the presentation will be the last page. Maybe it is because of “celebratory sex” that they decided to spend the night at Lotor’s place. Maybe it’s because, after two hundred days, they now find comfort in each other.

Lotor wakes up at 4AM with his arms around the woman he’s sworn to be his biggest enemy. She’s warm in his embrace, and she fits in his arms like the teddy bear he wouldn’t go to sleep without when he was young. It’s dreamlike, and without much thought, he closes his eyes to make it last a little longer.

 

* * *

 

Allura wakes up to a tray of delicious-smelling bacon, waffles, and three different kinds of eggs. She rubs the sleep from her eyes to see a figure carefully setting up the food on the table. “Wow, Diak, that smells so g-”

When she makes the figure out to be Lotor in a yellow apron and a manbun, Allura, for the lack fo the better term, “loses her shit.”

“What is going on?” She asks suspiciously.

Lotor looks at her, confused. “I cooked”

“You _cook?_ Do you even know how?”

He scoffs. “Why don’t you try it and see for yourself?”

She sits frozen on the bed, and then after a few minutes eventually gets up towards the table- Lotor’s even got a pink mitten on one hand - it’s such a stupid image and yet so cute at the same time. “Wh-why did you-” she gestures at the food before taking her place in the table.

Lotor takes a while to reply. He wanted to? He just wanted to cook for her. That’s all. It was a thought in his brain that came up and he followed it. In the end, he went with, “I owe you”

Allura nods at the explanation. “Fair enough,” then she takes a proper look at the feast in front of her. The bacon wasn’t even burnt. Everything smelled good. She never expected this from Lotor at all.

He sits down in front of her. “Well, go on, dig in”

She does, and much as she hates to admit it, it’s one of the best breakfasts she’s ever had.

She might never get to one-up this.

 

* * *

 

10 days til presentation 

 

The opportunity to end the streak once and for all came in a lavender-scented envelope engraved with K + L.

When Allura saw it in the mail, the dread registered in her face before she can open it.

Without even thinking, she calls Lotor in two swift seconds.

“Do you wanna go to The Balmera?”

“What?” Lotor answers, confused.

“You know, the island with the cliffs and beaches, like the cleaner Hawaii”

“I know where The Balmera is, I’m just, why are we going there?”

“Because…” Allura bites her lip. What was she gonna say? _Because I got a letter from the boy whose heart I broke fifteen years ago about how he’s having a destination wedding at The Balmera and it’s obviously a ploy to make me feel bad about my miserable single life?!_ It’s not even a real wedding! It’s not legal, it’s just a tribe wedding, oh but the mechanics are still the same and the humiliation will be so so real and-

“Allura? Are you there?”

“I- yes, um…”

“What’s our business in The Balmera?”

She puts the envelope aside. “Just a vacation! You know? Celebratory thing? Sex in the tropics? Yes? I owe you, after all...”

The few seconds that Lotor takes to answer the question makes her heart beat fast.

Then finally, he says, “I do like the idea of sex in the tropics…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congratulations! You just read almost five thousand words of soft erotica! Scroll down for a reward!
> 
>  
> 
> The reward is my love and affection. And finally an actual plot development in the next chapter??! Mayhaps
> 
> HMU on twitter @bonglotor. Peace bongtors!


	6. A drop in the ocean, part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get too fond, and it's all too good to be true.

3 days til the presentation

 

Lotor rushes into the airport in a french braid beneath a fedora and those white knee-high shorts all people who own yachts have. Why he looks like the definition of haute couture, Allura did not know, but he looks absolutely ravishing in all-white, his see-through button-down shirt clinging to his chest. He’s got one small purple suitcase on one hand, as he waves to her with the other, as if he didn’t already stick out in the crowd as it is. “Allura!” He shouts.

She waves back, all across the room. “I can see you!”

When he finally manages to swim past the crowd to her, he asks, “Did I ever tell you that I have a private jet?”

Allura rolls her eyes. “Yes, Lotor. Like 10 times”

“So why aren’t we taking that?”

She takes his wrist to guide him into the sea of people. Brushing a thumb against the tickets Lance and Keith e-mailed after she RSVP’d to the wedding, she lies, “Cause then I would’ve won these first class tickets for nothing.” She coughs. “Hey, what took you so long anyway?”

Lotor had excuses lined up. _I’m just used to arriving “late”, you know, being someone who owns a private jet and all._ Or something simple like the traffic was bad. But when the question actually comes up, and after everything they’ve been through, he finds no reason to lie. “Oh, that witch Haggar just—“

Allura shoots him a look that was screaming _“Language...”_

“I mean, my mother, Honerva,” Lotor clarified, with too much stress on mother. “She got piss drunk and kept screaming she wanted a divorce or something, we just had to, erm, sort that out”

Allura stops in her tracks. “ _What?_ ” It’s the first time he ever opens up about his parents’ marriage, but Allura caught on eventually. Sometimes, when the TV quiets, she heard raised voices outside. Often, she’d catch the maids cleaning up broken things, mostly glassware, and other really expensive items. But Allura didn’t wanna bring it up. Figured he’d tell her when he’s ready. After all, they’re not even technically _anything_. It’s just sex, so… he didn’t _have_ to tell her… but if he did…

Well, she just didn’t expect for him to blurt it out in the middle of the airport before they board a flight to an island nine hundred miles from here.

“Shouldn’t you— shouldn’t you stay home and—“

Lotor pushes her back into the crowd, chuckling, “Oh please, Allura, it’s basically an inside joke. Don’t take it so seriously”

“ _But_ — do they do that a lot?” Allura asks, worry spilling into her voice.

Lotor shrugs. “Twice a day at least? Like vitamins.”

The skepticism really bothered her, because the kid she saw in his vlogs really looked sad at times. “Lotor,” Allura sets her luggage down and grips his shoulder. “Are you sure that everything’s— that _you’re_ alright?”

Lotor immediately regrets ever bringing it up. Allura didn’t wanna hear about it, obviously. She didn’t have to. She was just a person he’s sleeping with, and his work colleague, his former rival. They didn’t go sharing personal shit like that to each other. Her teenage diary and his oriande vlogs - it was just leverage. Didn’t mean anything.

“Yes, of course!” he exclaims as his brain fights itself like a cancer. On one hand, there’s his anticipation on taking this trip to the Balmera with Allura. The beaches. The sex. The fantasy. On another hand, there’s the stinging of the fresh cut Zarkon gave him on the side of his head that he’s hiding with the braid and fedora combo, the images of Haggar’s big mental breakdown, Zarkon’s violent response to it, and Lotor’s unsolicited impulse to finally punch first. The only reason he stopped beating Zarkon up into a pulp in their living room was because he didn’t want to miss his flight to the Balmera with Allura today, and he needed ample time to change into a shirt that didn’t have his father’s blood on it, and for Diak to apply ice on his knuckles so they won’t swell.

So he decides that he needs this, and he wasn’t gonna let Allura’s hyper-altruism get in the way of that. “Come’on, Allura, it’s nothing, I swear,” he tells her, hands slotting themselves in between her face as he gives her the softest smile he can muster. “We’re going to the Balmera!” he tells her excitedly. “We’re gonna have the best sex e— _hey_ lo sir _Alfor_ sir.”

Alfor, who popped out of literally nowhere to give him a heart attack, gives him a little nod, which Lotor returns frantically, such that the owner of an internationally-acclaimed pharmaceutical company wouldn’t get the slightest impression that Lotor had been and is thinking of continuing to fuck his daughter. “I... did not expect you to be here, um, sir”

Alfor gives Allura a kiss on the forehead, “I wanted to drop my little girl off.”

Allura smiles. “Thanks, dad. But you really didn’t have to.”

“Oh, didn’t I? You were just freaking out five minutes ago that this punk stood you up!” Alfor exclaims.

Lotor immediately turns red from neck up. “I am _truly_ sorry, I got caught up on—"

Allura pushes her father aside as she blushes the same shade Lotor’s turned right now. “I—that never happened.”

Behind her, Alfor shoots him a mischievous look that Lotor can only interpret as, _“she lying”_

Then, he steps up towards Lotor and casually puts two hands on his shoulders, “Listen, doesn't your father have a private jet or something?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Lotor immediately answers, side-eying Allura with an i-told-you-so look. “Yes, Alfor, as a matter of fact my father _does_ have a private jet but your _daughter_ here—”

“Stubborn, that one,” Alfor supplies.

“—she’s so stubborn,” Lotor says at the same time.

“Just like her mother,” Alfor adds, looking on fondly at Allura, who’s looking real embarrassed of his dad’s presence right now. Picture: a goth middle-schooler getting dropped off at school in a pink minivan.

“O _kay_ , dad, that’s enough interaction between you two deviants, no?” She grins, giving her father one last hug before literally pushing him to the direction of the exit.

“Bye, honey!” Alfor shouts as he waves goodbye to the two. Well, he’s gotta admit, he always knew these two would end up with each other somehow. True, he worried when he first heard the news. Lotor and Allura working _together?_ It seemed… dangerous. They’d burn the house down with them in it. But when this grown up version of his daughter’s rival shows up in his door with the best posture he’s ever seen in a man, and the most polite greeting he’s ever heard so far (“Good evening, sir. I’m working with Allura on a robot tonight. I brought ginger ale for you.”), Alfor knew they’d be alright.

 

* * *

 

Lotor’s strides are long and quick, but Allura lags along. He’s never been so excited to leave the state in his life. To get away from Zarkon and Honerva. To get away from his own thoughts of running away or getting emancipated. To just spend the weekend blissfully oblivious in some faraway island with Allura. The light at the end of Departures was like a sunrise to a new life.

Behind him, Allura stops in her tracks.

He’s almost all the way out when he notices she’s stopped walking. Immediately, he goes to where she is, like a magnet.

“What’s wrong?”

Allura doesn’t look him in the eye. “Listen, I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

There’s instantly a bad feeling in his gut, and its rushing upwards towards his throat. What is it? What is it? Why can’t he just _have things_ without everything going horribly wrong? “About what?”

Allura’s got the guiltiest look on her face. She bites her lip. “There’s... something you have to know about the nature of our trip.”

“What does that mean?” Every dead second that passes sends his brain to all sorts of places. They have to stay there longer? God he hopes so. They have to work there? No problem with him. They won’t be having sex at all? No problem at all! Anything that comes up right now – if he has to kill a person for it – he really might, because he really just wants to get off this fucking airport, this whole fucking state, this whole fucking life.

But what Allura pulls out of her tote bag is a lavender-scented envelope that says K + L. “It’s a boy from camp,” she narrates after he opens it, revealing the invitation to the wedding that was happening later today. Allura continues, “I just— didn’t know who else to take, I mean I have a lot of friends but after that Romelle fiasco we all seemed to just... fall apart and—“

Lotor almost laughs. A heavy weight is instantly lifted from his shoulders. “Allura—”

“It’s okay though,” Allura rambles on, hands flying everywhere like they’re having a debate. “I don’t think anyone in the party would know who you are, or even honestly who I am, so you don’t have to worry about our whole, you know, arrangement leaking into the mainland, it’s just—“

He puts his hands on her shoulders to steady her. “Allura, hold on. Let me get this straight.” Leaning down to look her in the eye, Lotor teases, “Are you asking me out to a wedding?”

Allura’s speechless for a few seconds, but continues on. “ _Yes_ I am, _technically,_ but it’s only Saturday afternoon, so by Sunday, I promise you, you can do whatever you want, you can go exploring, you can have your big vacation, and you don’t have to stick around me the whole time cause anyway I think I’ll just be wallowing in my own—“

He looks at her freak out and defend herself, and he oddly thinks it to be cute. Like how rabbits are cute. The whole pink rainbow unicorn level of cute. He didn’t even know he had that feeling stashed in there to feel. He plays along, “But I don’t have a suit”

“What?” Allura’s face falls, and now she looks like a kid whose lollipop has just been taken away. Cute.

“I didn’t bring a suit,” Lotor repeats.

Allura opens and closes her mouth as she contemplates a reply, but she eventually gives it up, shoulders drooping and mouth forming into a pout. _Cute_. “You’re right,” She tells him sadly. “You’re right, this was a mistake, I shouldn’t have even asked, I mean we just fuck, we’re not even—“

He laughs finally. His voice booms into departures, causing other people to look. “Allura, _please_ could you stop freaking out for a second?”

“I’m sorry?” She asks, terribly confused.

He reaches a hand out to her. “Quick, give me your phone”

“ _Why_? What’s going on?” She asks, eyebrows furrowed at him.

“Mine’s busted,” Lotor explained. “I, uh, I threw it into a wall after my argument with Zarkon this morning, anyway, just give me your phone”

Allura cautiously complies and she waits as Lotor lets out _hmmm_ s as he types.

“What are you doing?” She finally asks.

“Looking for fitters”

“Fitters?”

He looks up from the phone. “I told you, I didn’t pack a suit. You didn’t tell me til last minute, tsk, tsk— _oh_ , this should be good, I heard of this guy, I think”

“What—” Allura tries to ask him more questions, but Lotor puts a finger on his lips to tell her to shut up as he calls the fitter on her phone.

“Hi, yes, how fast can you fit me a suit? Hm? A wedding. It’s this afternoon, yeah, yeah. I’ll be there shortly, we’re actually catching a flight now. _Oh,_ no, no, I’m just _attending_ the wedding. I’m not—I’m not the—yeah. _So_ , wait let me check— Is there a color theme?”

“Purple,” Allura replies immediately, though still highly unsure of what’s going on – or rather, _why_ it’s going on.

“Nice,” Lotor comments, then gets back to his phone call. “Purple, yup. I think I’ll get a simple white suit, and like, knee-high—yeah, yeah, that sounds awesome. Yup, it’s Lotor, yeah, great, thanks, uh, Shay, and pleasure to meet you.”

He smiles at Allura when it’s over. “Well, I got a suit”

“Wait,” Allura clarifies. “Wait a second, does that mean you’re going? With me? To a wedding? As my _date_?”

 _Anywhere_ , he thinks. Anywhere away from here. Lotor gestures around the departure area. “Mid departure, Allura, do you think I’m leaving?”

Those words give her butterflies for some reason, but she doesn’t acknowledge it.

He takes her hand in his. “You think I’m leaving you here? I’m really rather offended, Allura. You know I’m a gentleman.”

She pushes him away playfully, a little blush on her cheeks now. Seven days of pacing back and forth in her room and biting her nails and picking up the phone then putting it down in fear that Lotor’s gonna leave her in the ditch when he finds out because _obviously_ he will, he _will_ , but… he isn’t. And she’s very relieved. “Thank you,” is all she could say.

The airport intercom sounds above them. A final call for passengers to the 4AM flight to the Balmera.

“Come on, let’s go,” Lotor tells her as they walk into the exit side by side.

“You know,” Lotor mentions. “When you said you were gonna go on a date with me, I didn’t really expect you’d take me to a _wedding_ , you know? And to the _Balmera_ too,” he pushes her with his shoulder playfully. “You’re surprisingly ride or die aren’t you? I like that about a woman”

She chuckles at the pronouncement. “ _What?_ When did I ever say I was gonna go on a date with you?”

“Oh, you don’t remember? I’m truly hurt,” Lotor says dramatically with his hand on his heart. “At the science fair. The latest one. You said that if I was right about your code, then you’d go on a date with me. And seeing as I’m always right…”

“Have you been looking forward to that this whole time?” Allura teases.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it looking forward,” he replies.

“What, then?” She smirks at him.

He shrugs. “Dreading”

She pushes him into the light of the exit. It’s all too good to be true.

 

* * *

 

“So, what are we now?” Lotor asks in the airplane.

The question catches Allura off-guard for a moment. “What?”

He coughs. “I mean, like, what are we pretending to be.... you know, for the wedding,” he says and coughs again like the awkward nerd that he was.

“ _Oh_ , um, well,” Allura wasn’t… really sure herself… “ _Actually_ ,” she says instead, “You should know, first, that it’s not actually a real wedding, cause they’re both too young and it’s not legal yet for two boys to get married in the continent”

“Um, what?”

“I know, like, marriage is a civil liberty. It should be inalienable to religion, right? That’s why the church and state are supposedly separated.”

“Well, yes, you’re right, but I kinda meant… if it wasn’t a real wedding… what is this then?”

Allura doesn’t even notice she’s rambling until she’s done. What is she even getting all nervous about? It’s just Lotor. Lotor who smells like some distracting expensive cologne and an honest-to-god shark tooth necklace… like a surfer. God, she was gonna devour this guy later. “It’s a tribal ceremony of some sort. I’m not really sure exactly how it goes, but I _know_ it’s just to show all their friends how rich and in love they are”

Lotor catches the bitterness in her tone but doesn’t bring it up. “Nice, so what about us?”

She practically chokes on air from hearing that. “Sorry, _what?_ ”

Lotor immediately defends himself. “I _mean_ , my, uh, my question, earlier, what are we there to show people in this… non-wedding?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know, boyfriend-girlfriend?”

“ _Boring_ ,” He comments, it being his prime imperative to always one-up Allura. “Why don’t we get engaged?”

She tries not to freak out about it this time. She’s starting to get suspicious that Lotor’s purposely asking these questions just to see how she’d react. “Um, sure, since when?”

He shrugs, “Since the science fair, I guess, around three months ago, maybe? You know, I walked in and I just… was so mesmerized by this… eco-friendly robot… that didn’t have lasers… and had bad code—“

“Oh, were you now?” She says, unamused.

“ _Yeah_ ,” Lotor says dramatically. “You know, I just couldn’t resist bad code. I fell in love at first sight.”

She pushes his face away as she laughs. “Ha-ha, okay then, and then you got down on one knee and asked me to marry you?”

He nods, a cocky look in his face. “Yup. I even got the documents for parental consent ready in my pocket.”

“Oh, did you now?”

“Yeah, I just have it stashed around in places, you know? Who knows when I’ll need them.”

Allura nodded, playing along. “Surely, all the time.”

“All the time,” he winked.

They laugh together in their first class seats, and to cap off the experience, Lotor calls an attendant over, “Hi, do have you have some champagne?” he asks, then takes Allura’s hand in his. “We just got engaged”

Allura pushes him over when she’s gone (only after like a whole minute of congratulations), and tells him, “But really, though. Nobody’s gonna buy that shit.”

He tells her, “We’re going to a tribal non-wedding in a cliff in another country, do you think these people _really_ won’t but that shit, Allura?”

“Touché”

 

* * *

 

The Balmera is straight out of a postcard. Looking out the window of their hotel room, perched on a cliff overlooking a lava shoreline, Lotor and Allura are both rendered speechless at the sight – the sunlight reflecting on the alluring water, the palm trees swaying along with the breeze, a bird or two flying past. It was a paradise.

Allura takes her ponytail off and opens her arms to welcome the rushing ocean breeze into her embrace. Her hair spreads out into the wind like silk, and with her eyes wide open, she shouts at the sea, “Hello, Balmera!”

She takes it all in, and it’s beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. She laughs.

Beside her, Lotor holds his breath without realizing it. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. She turns to give him a smile, like a kid would when she’s showing off a new toy. He smiles back, the endless horizon reflecting in his eyes, and Allura.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

 

* * *

 

“So who’s the lucky girl?” The fitter, Shay, asks him as she takes his measurements.

“What?” Lotor replies, abashed.

She gives him a quick wink through the mirror. “Men only get suits fitted for a woman,” she says mischievously.

Lotor chuckles. “Is that so?” Seriously? Is that the norm? Men were rather disappointing, then! No wonder the hostility these recent years. He, for one, had all his suits fitted, and he makes Shay very aware of that.

“Impressive,” Shay smiled. “A man with class.”

Lotor proudly takes the compliment as he looks himself down in the mirror. “Thank you”

“I sure hope this white suit will fit you as well as your other ones”

It looks good in the mirror. Clean. Makes the color of his skin stand out. He looks good in this. “It’s my first white suit in a while,” he mentions to Shay. His formalwear decisions used to be under Diak’s care as well, and she played with it as much as she could like a mom trying to see what her toddler would look like in little Jordans, and then Keds. When he finally feared enough for his reputation to take over his own wardrobe, he mostly picked the dark shades. Black, most often, and when he’s feeling fashionable, blue.

“Oh, really?” Shay lets out an amused laugh, then looks at Lotor in the mirror. “Well, I think white suits you. Really brings out your skin tone.”

He can see that. It feels new but in a good way. He doesn’t feel like himself in a white suit, but that’s precisely why he likes the idea of it. And he looks good. He does. He should try new things more. Maybe even stop being to self-defeating and miserable, and just… change. Wear a white suit for once.

“Her name’s Allura,” he finds himself telling Shay. “She’s, uh, Allura is, um, my date. To the wedding.”

Shay gives him a knowing smile. “That’s a beautiful name.”

“Yeah,” he nods. “Yeah, I guess.”

He thinks Allura would like the white suit.

 

* * *

 

She did not look good in this dress.

It’s a strapless body-hugging cocktail dress with ruffled pephem edging that cut in the middle of her knee and ankle. It’s designer. It cost 400 dollars. And she did not even look good in it.

“Lavender isn’t your color,” she can practically hear Romelle say in her head, and the bitch would’ve been right anyway. Allura hated that about her. She was always right, or at least she was so convincingly un-wrong. Maybe she knew exactly how to manipulate people into seeing things her way. Maybe her way was really the right way all this time. Maybe lavender really isn’t Allura’s color. Maybe she made a mistake in “dropping” Romelle. Maybe this dress really sucks.

It does. She wants to call Romelle and apologize.

“Dammit,” Allura mumbles as she turns to look at herself from all possible angles.

She’s always the one apologizing, even when Romelle’s the one being childish. And that’s just what she is – a child with an anxiety disorder.

Then Allura feels bad for being choked up by Romelle’s bullshit. Maybe she can’t help it. She’s got a fucking anxiety disorder. Maybe Allura’s the bad guy. Maybe this dress fucking sucks. How did she get all this so terribly wrong?

“Oh my god, stop it,” Allura says to the mirror, hands pressed around face. “You are losing it,” she tells her reflection, and all of a sudden, she’s eleven again.

It was Romelle who introduced her to Lance at camp. He was hitting on her but Romelle was uninterested, so she kindly “referred” Lance to Allura. Sure enough, he felt that she was his one true love for three years. He wouldn’t stop calling, won’t stop sending her letters, and it was annoying, but at the same time, it was all the comfort she had following her mother’s death and their big move out of Altea.

So, yes, okay, she led him on.

That was only one of three sins she did to Lance.

It was a grief camp. A support group. Lance was there because his grandmother died, Allura because of her mom, and Romelle because of her dog (which she got over with in three days, by which time she left). Allura knew, though, that the real reason she was there was so that Alfor could go around drinking all sorts of booze and gambling half of their money away.

Every after prayers, the counselors instructed the children to chant a mantra: “Better days lie ahead.”

Allura saw people get there (Romelle especially quick) – to the better days, but she wasn’t budging one bit. Eventually, her and Lance were the only kids that didn’t feel the better days, and it was comforting in a way. It made both of them feel that it was okay not to be okay.

But now… Lance is getting married, and she’s still eleven – insecure and unsure of where to go from here, draped in a 400-dollar dress that didn’t even fit well.

“Hey”

Allura didn’t even realize that Lotor’s come in until his voice snaps her out of her anxious trance. She replies absentmindedly, “Hey”

She’s worried too much about how he’d feel about going to the wedding with her that Allura didn’t get the time to think about the wedding itself. Of Lance. Why was she even here? Why did Lance invite her? Why did she say yes?

They do say karma catches up with you. Perhaps this is retribution.

“Everything okay?” Lotor asked, carefully laying down a suit on their bed.

“Yeah,” Allura replies.

Lotor smirks and walks up to where she was by the mirror, “So, I was thinking we should maybe come up with a list of places to have sex in, cause I’ve got _a lot_ , but I wanna pace myself, you know?” he rambles, smiling at their reflection in the mirror, then he places both hands on her shoulders, but she freezes up for some reason, and it immediately sends red flags in Lotor’s brain.

“Woah, what’s up?” He asks her.

“What? Nothing”

“Nothing? You—you had a reaction,” he defends.

Allura chuckles nervously, “ _What_ are you even talking about, listen—” she turns around to face him. “Listen, I’m alright, it’s just, you know, pretty cold out here,” she lies.

Lotor looks at the open balcony window. They _are_ at the top of a building on top of a cliff. He closes it. “Here we go. So, list of sex places?” he says with his face lit up.

Allura gives him a smile. “The balcony for sure”

Lotor smirks. “You beat me to it. I say… outside in the bushes”

“ _What_?” Allura laughs. “What if people find us?!”

“That’s part of the thrill!”

“Nope. No,” she crosses her arms at him.

He pouts. “Fine. The beach?”

She smiles at him. “Yeah, I can do that beach”

Lotor bites his lip. “Damn, I wanna take you right now, but the breakfast buffet is almost ending.”

Allura walks up to him and places a finger on his lips. He melts into it, opening his mouth teasingly to bite it, but Allura takes it away. She drags it down his neck, stopping to admire the shark tooth necklace he was wearing for the first time, and then slowly unbuttons his white shirt, eyes fixed on him.

They had not had sex since they spent the night over at Lotor’s place. It’s only been a few days, but Lotor’s dick reacts like it’s been ages.

Allura palms him through his shorts, making him gasp, then she leans into his mouth and says, “First one down gets to choose the first sex location,” she whispers.

Lotor’s stands frozen in his spot, mouth agape. “Oh my god, that’s— _you_ —you tease—I’m—”

Allura laughs at his reaction.

“That’s unfair,” he says, arms crossed.

“Why?”

“I have to get changed”

“So do I,” she answers.

He squints his eyes at the smirk she’s giving him, then immediately takes his clothes off in front of her. She does the same, happy to finally get rid of the dress. She’ll get another one. Hopefully. If Lotor found a fitter maybe so can she.

“Hey, is that what you’re wearing later?” Lotor tells her as he puts on a new set of clothes, not taking the shark tooth necklace off.

Allura shrugs, rummaging through her suitcase for an outfit for breakfast. “I’m not sure”

“Why not?”

Allura bites her lip and answers, “Lavender isn’t my color”

Lotor tightens his braid in the mirror and tucks in any stray strands. His response is surprising to the anxious Allura. “Says who?”

She couldn’t answer. Says Romelle, she would say. But Romelle never really did say that. Half of the conversations in her head never happened.

As she’s distracted, Lotor rushes to the door with a mischievous look on his face. He tells her one more thing before he slams the door shut. “It looks, um, beautiful on you. You look, uh, fine,” then he’s out.

She laughs at how Lotor always cluelessly fixes her life.

 

* * *

 

“Look, I’m not judging or anything, but that’s like your sixth chocolate waffle today,” Allura says in a judgmental tone as Lotor devours another one of the fancy chocolate waffles they served at the buffet by the sea. Behind them, there’s a bald native who’s definitely judging Lotor’s eating habits right now.

“It’s a breakfast buffet for a reason, Allura,” Lotor defends himself, loud enough for the guy at the back to hear which makes him mind his own business for once. Allura was obviously just jealous of his food. She’s obviously trying to look the least fat as possible for the wedding later with the bread-and-avocado combo she brought from the wide selection of pancakes, waffles, eggs, and other fattening breakfast food the hotel offered. He’s seen this behavior before in his ex-girlfriend Merla, and frankly thought Allura to be beyond this kind of insecurity. She was just too confident. That boy from camp must really be some big ex-boyfriend of hers.

“Yeah, but, I thought you didn’t like sweets, except maybe coke floats… but only when your feelings stressed,” she rambles on. It’s here that it really dawns on Lotor that they spent almost all of their free time together making the robot, and now they know each other’s behavioral patterns. Being someone who’s purposely detached himself from any and all human contact closely resembling “friendship”, pursuant to a life of a pragmatic scholar dedicated to science rationality… his life really took a turn here without his knowledge.

“Are you?” Allura asks him. “Have I stressed you out with this wedding thing?”

 “ _No_ ,” he says immediately. Of course not. Nobody in the wedding knew him. He’s not stressed, he’s the contrary. He’s liberated. His old life is nine miles removed from him. For the weekend, he’s just Allura’s fiance.

“I don’t buy it,” Allura teases, taking her sweet time with her bread and avocado. Must be a diet thing. “Why are you stress eating?”

“I’m _not_ , okay? I’m allowed to change my mind about sweets,” he tells her.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah”

She smirks, “Can we order the dessert platter after the wedding tonight?” There she is. The sweet tooth. This dieting must really be making her suffer. Poor Allura.

“Are you gonna lick it off my chest?” He teases.

She rides along. “Depends”

“On what?”

Allura shrugs. “If I don’t get sick from all the sugar”

Lotor smiles. “Maybe I do like sweets now”

“Maybe you’ve liked sweets ever since, and you’re just acknowledging it now,” she says.

“What? I don’t have some crazy repressed shit on sweets, Allura,” Lotor replies before shoving half a waffle in his mouth.

“You don’t know that,” Allura argues. “They do say little boys pull girls’ pigtails because they like them”

He raises an eyebrow at her. “ _I_ pulled your pigtails”

She smiles. “And here we are”

He stops mid-waffle to ponder that, and then decides on a point of attack. “Are you saying that I like you?”

She’s blushing a little, but it’s not obvious beneath the make up. She clears her throat. “I’m saying that maybe you grew into liking sweets”

Lotor nods. That was a fair point.

“So, dessert platter?”

“Dessert platter”

 

* * *

 

“Oh, by the way,” Lotor says after his twelfth waffle as he takes out a ring box and places it in the middle of the table. “Nobody’s gonna buy our excuse without a ring”

Allura’s eyes widen, and she immediately takes the box to look inside. It’s a simple thin silver band with a small topaz in the middle; it reflects the sunlight into Allura’s eyes. “I— how much is this?”

Lotor shrugs. “Not much, really. I just went with the cheapest they had”

That was a lie. It was the second cheapest. The cheapest was too simple – just a silver band shaped into a fancy shape – but Lotor, of course, didn’t want to make such a big deal out of this. He was just doing what his weekend persona – Lotor, Allura’s fiance – would want her to have. It didn’t mean anything.

Allura coughs, “Um, well, maybe, I should—” she takes out the ring and attempts to put it on her finger, but the bald native guy behind them was looking at Lotor with so much pressure, he got down on one knee and awkwardly pronounced, “Wait, um, I should, let me—”

But before he can even finish, people have started clapping around them and congratulating them. Behind them. Native bald guy even started screaming, “Put it on her already!”

Lotor and Allura, both blushing idiots, laughed as he puts the engagement ring on her finger. “Kiss her!” Native bald guy shouts behind them. Lotor leans in, but Allura’s frozen on her chair. Casually, he pulls her into a hug and whispers in her ear, “How’s this for a cover story?” as he smiles gratefully at the cameras.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to everyone who wanted to see a Klance wedding right away I promise it's comin I'm just taking my sweet time given as I didn't plot this dumb fanfic out before writing it I have to lay down a lot of groundwork before getting to the good stuff aNYWAY thank u for ur patience!
> 
> hmu @bonglotor on twitter


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